Imaging computer system and network

ABSTRACT

A multi-processing system which handles image processing and graphics by constructing a crossbar switch capable of inter-connecting any processor with any memory in any configuration for the interchange of data. The system is capable of connecting n parallel processors to m memories where m is greater than n.

This application is a continuation of application Ser. No. 07/437,854,filed Nov. 17, 1989, now abandoned.

TECHNICAL FIELD OF THE INVENTION

This invention relates generally to imaging systems and moreparticularly to such systems and methods in which the incoming image issubject to interpretation.

CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

All of the following patent applications are cross-referenced to oneanother, and all have been assigned to Texas Instruments Incorporated.These applications have been concurrently filed and are herebyincorporated in this patent application by reference.

    ______________________________________                                        U.S.                                                                          Pat. App.                                                                             Title                                                                 ______________________________________                                        437,591 Multi-Processor With Crossbar Link of                                         Processors and Memories and Method of                                         Operation                                                             437,858 SIMD/MIMD Reconfigurable Multi-Processor and                                  Method of Operation                                                   437,856 Reconfigurable Communications for Multi-                                      Processor and Method of Operation                                     437,852 Reduced Area of Crossbar and Method of                                        Operation                                                             437,853 Synchronized MIMD Multi-Processors, System                                    and Method of Operation                                               437,946 Sliced Addressing Multi-Processor and Method                                  of Operation                                                          437,857 Ones Counting Circuit and Method of                                           Operation                                                             437,851 Memory Circuit Reconfigurable as Data Memory                                  or Instruction Cache and Method of Operation                          437,875 Switch Matrix Having Integrated Crosspoint                                    Logic and Method of Operation                                         ______________________________________                                    

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

A picture is worth a thousand words is as true today as it ever was.Visual images form a fundamental part of our lives, from body languageto subliminal messages buried in a picture. Therein lies the challenge;namely, to have a computer "read" visual images and interpret the truemessage of the image.

The usefulness of such intelligent visual imaging computers is farreaching. On a simple level, the imaging computer could be built into acopy machine (or a facsimile machine) and used to clean the copiedimage. This could be accomplished, for example, by having the computerscan the image, determine the proper outlines or other pertinentcharacteristics of the image, and then enhance those characteristicswhile removing any imperfections, such as extraneous dots and darkmarks.

Other practical applications of such an imaging computer could be tomonitor the physical movements of a person's extremities, such as a handor arm, and determine from the movements what the person is saying. Thistype of action would also require image processing of a high degree.

Still other applications of such a processing system would be theunderstanding of symbols and relationships so that the symbols in adocument, whether taken singularly or as a whole, would be "understood"by the imaging processor and used for creating the appropriate responseas an output.

To accomplish such a formidable task, the image processing computerwould have to process a vast amount of image pixel data in real time andmanipulate those pixels in conjunction with many data bases. When it isunderstood that each image line of a typical visual image screencontains 1024 pixels, (high definition imaging systems have over 2000pixels) with each pixel containing, perhaps as many as thirty-two databits, with a typical image containing perhaps 1,000 lines, the magnitudeof this task can be appreciated. Coupled with this, some of the pixelsmust be compared with other pixels, some pixels must be manipulated incertain ways, while still other pixels must be transformed according tospecial algorithms. All of this results in a magnitude of operationsheretofore only accomplished by the largest, fastest computers.

In addition, because of the different types of operations such animaging processor would be called upon to perform, very differentinternal structures must be utilized. In one situation it is desirableto have many processors, each capable of working independently ondifferent parts of an image. This independence then presumes a parallelprocessing structure with the different processors having concurrentaccess to any memory area. However, in situations where all of the imagemust be processed dependent upon pixel information of many other partsof the image, an operating structure is required where many processors,or a single processor, has access to one or more memories, perhaps on anexclusive basis. Making matters even more difficult is the fact thatduring the actual processing of an image, several different competinginternal operating structures may be necessary, thereby requiring closeinternal system communication.

It is thus a desirable objective to create an image processing systemcapable of fast, efficient image pixel manipulations while doing so at acost and at a size where the processing can be incorporated easily intodaily life.

Thus, it is desirable to have a relatively compact processing systemhaving large memory capacity as well as large processing capacity whilestill maintaining the flexibility of accomplishing a myriad of diverseand structurally competitive processing feats.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

These problems have been solved by designing a multi-processing systemto handle image processing and graphics and by constructing a crossbarswitch capable of interconnecting any processor with any memory in anyconfiguration for the interchange of data. The system is capable ofconnecting n parallel processors to m memories where m is greater thann. In one embodiment, the entire processing system is constructed on asingle silicon chip.

The image processing system contains several independently addressablememories all connectable via the cross bar switch to any processor. Theprocessors can run independently in the multiple instruction, multipledata (MIMD) mode or in the single instruction, multiple data (SIMD) datamode. Close internal communication between the processors allows them toefficiently switch between one or the other modes. The memories can beshared by all processors or certain processors may, for periods of time,gain exclusive access to one or more memories.

The image processor has been incorporated into an imaging system whichcan analyze image pixel information using any number of algorithms.Different ones of these algorithms, which can be used to process all ofan image or parts of an image, can run simultaneously on the same datausing different processors. This then allows the image to be examined,for example, to determine the meaning of the image.

Using this approach, the movements of a hand in front of a camera can beinterpreted by the imaging system. This allows the image processingsystem to operate in a "signing" mode to provide intelligent informationto a user of the system.

One example of such a system would be a system that cleans documents byremoving the extraneous marks on a page. This would be accomplished bypassing the image of the page through certain algorithms in real timethereby determining exactly what the new page should look like.

Another example would be to provide audible or other command informationfrom the received video images, for example from a TV screen. This couldbe used in commercial broadcasting (or consumer products) where certainvideo movements could trigger remote operations or in facsimiletransmission where the received image is passed through the processorfor image clarification purposes. The video image itself would beenhanced using the image processor to compare the individual pixelinformation to other received pixel information and to correct somepixels according to a certain set of algorithms.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

For a more complete understanding of the present invention and forfurther advantages thereof, reference is now made to the followingdetailed description taken in conjunction with accompanying drawings inwhich

FIGS. 1 and 2 show an overall view of the elements of the imageprocessing system;

FIG. 3 shows a series of image processing systems interconnectedtogether into an expanded system;

FIG. 4 shows details of the crossbar switch matrix interconnecting theparallel processors and the memories;

FIGS. 5 and 6 show prior art configurations;

FIG. 7 shows an improved configuration;

FIGS. 8 and 9 show prior art schematic representations of processormemory interaction;

FIG. 10 shows some reconfigurable modes of operations of an improvedmulti-processor;

FIG. 11 is a graph showing some algorithms and control for the imageprocessing system;

FIGS. 12-15 show image pixel flow for SIMD and MIMD operational modes;

FIG. 16 shows the interrupt polling communication between theprocessors;

FIG. 17 shows a schematic representation of the layout of the processorsand memory interconnected by the crossbar switch;

FIGS. 18 and 19 show details of the crosspoints of the crossbar switch;

FIG. 20 is a graph of wave forms of the contention logic for memoryaccess;

FIGS. 21-23 show the synchronization control between processors;

FIGS. 24-27 show details of the sliced addressing technique;

FIG. 28 shows details of the rearrangement of the instruction datamemory for the SIMD/MIMD operational modes;

FIG. 29 shows details of a master processor;

FIGS. 30-34 show details of the parallel processors;

FIGS. 35-45 show figures useful in understanding methods of operation ofthe parallel processor;

FIGS. 46-48 show an image processor operating as a personal computer;

FIGS. 49-52 show system arrangements for use of the imaging system on alocal and remote basis;

FIG. 53 is a functional block diagram of an imaging system;

FIG. 54 is a logic schematic of the ones counting circuit matrix;

FIG. 55 is a logic schematic of a minimized matrix of the ones countingcircuit;

FIG. 56 is an example of an application of a ones counting circuit;

FIG. 57 shows a block diagram of the transfer processor;

FIG. 58 shows a block diagram of the parallel processor system used witha VRAM; and

FIGS. 59-64 show various operational mode relationships.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

Prior to beginning a discussion of the operation of the system, it maybe helpful to understand how parallel processing systems have operatedin the prior art.

FIG. 5 shows a system having parallel processors 50-53 accessing asingle memory 55. The system shown in FIG. 5 is typically called ashared memory system where all of the parallel processors 50-53 sharedata in and out of the same memory 55.

FIG. 6 shows another prior art system where memory 65-68 is distributedwith respect to processors 60-63 on a one-for-one basis. In this type ofsystem, the various processors access their respective memory inparallel and thus operate without memory contention between theprocessors. The system operating structures shown in FIGS. 5 and 6, aswill be discussed hereinafter, are suitable for a particular type ofproblem, and each is optimized for that type of problem. In the past,systems tended to be either shared or distributed.

As processing requirements become more complex and the speed ofoperation becomes critical, it is important for systems to be able tohandle a wide range of operations, some of which are best performed inthe shared memory mode, and some of which are best performed in adistributed memory mode. The structure shown in FIGS. 1 and 2accomplishes this result by allowing a system to have parallelprocessing working both in the shared and in the distributed mode. Whilein these modes, various operational arrangements such as SIMD and MIMDcan be achieved.

Multi-Processors and Memory Interconnection

As shown in FIG. 1, there is a set of parallel processors 100-103 and amaster processor 12 connected to a series of memories 10 via acycle-rate local connection network switch matrix 20 called a crossbarswitch. The crossbar switch, as will be shown, is operative on a cycleby cycle basis to interconnect the various processors with the variousmemories so that different combinations of distributed and shared memoryarrangements can be achieved from time to time as necessary for theparticular operation. Also, as will be shown, certain groups ofprocessors can be operating in a distributed mode with respect tocertain memories, while other processors concurrently can be operatingin the shared mode with respect to each other and with respect to aparticular memory.

Another view of the system is shown in FIG. 2 in which the four parallelprocessors 100, 101, 102, 103 are shown connected to memory 10 viaswitch matrix 20 which is shown in FIG. 2 as a distributed bus. Alsoconnected to memory 10 via crossbar switch 20 is transfer processor 11and master processor 12. Master processor 12 is also connected to datacache 13 via bus 171 and instruction cache 14 via bus 172. The parallelprocessors 100 through 103 are interconnected via communication bus 40so that the processors, as will be discussed hereinafter, cancommunicate with each other and with master processor 12 and withtransfer processor 11. Transfer processor 11 communicates with externalmemory 15 via bus 21.

Also in FIG. 2, frame controllers 170 are shown communicating withtransfer processor 11 via bus 110. Frame controllers 170 serve tocontrol image inputs and outputs as will be discussed hereinafter. Theseinputs can be, for example, a video camera, and the output can be, forexample, a data display. Any other type of image input or image outputcould also be utilized in the manner to be more fully discussedhereinafter.

Crossbar switch 20 is shown distributed, and in this form tends tomitigate communication bottlenecks so that communications can floweasily between the various parts of the system. The crossbar switch isintegrated on a single chip with the processors and with the memorythereby further enhancing communications among the system elements.

Also, it should be noted that fabrication on a chip is in layers and theswitch matrix may have elements on various different layers. Whenrepresenting the switch pictorially, it is shown in crossbar fashionwith horizontals and verticals. In actual practice these may be allrunning in the same direction only separated spatially from one another.Thus, the terms horizontal and vertical, when applied to the links ofthe switch matrix, may be interchanged with each other and refer tospatially separated lines in the same or different parallel planes.

Digressing momentarily, the system can operate in several operationalmodes, one of these modes being a single instruction multiple data(SIMD) mode where a single instruction stream is supplied to more thanone parallel processor, and each processor can access the same memory ordifferent memories to operate on the data. The second operational modeis the multiple instruction, multiple data mode (MIMD) where multipleinstructions coming from perhaps different memories operate multipleprocessors operating on data which comes from the same or differentmemory data banks. These two operational modes are but two of manydifferent operational modes that the system can operate in, and as willbe seen, the system can easily switch between operational modesperiodically when necessary to operate the different algorithms of thedifferent instruction streams.

Returning briefly to FIG. 1, master processor 12 is shown connected tothe memories via crossbar switch 20. Transfer processor 11, which isalso shown connected to crossbar switch 20, is shown connected via bus21 to external memory 15. Also note that as part of memory 10, there areseveral independent memories and a parameter memory which will be usedin conjunction with processor interconnection bus 40 in a manner to bemore fully detailed hereinafter. While FIG. 2 shows a single parametermemory, in actuality the parameter memory can be several RAMS perprocessor which makes communication more efficient and allows theprocessors to communicate with the RAMS concurrently.

FIG. 4 shows a more detailed view of FIGS. 1 and 2 where the fourparallel processors 100-103 are shown interconnected by communicationbus 40 and also shown connected to memory 10 via crossbar switch matrix20. The various crosspoints of the crossbar switch will be referred toby their coordinate locations starting in a lower left corner with 0-0.In the numbering scheme, the vertical number will be used first. Thus,the lower left corner crosspoint is known as 0-0, and the oneimmediately to the right in the bottom row would be 1-0. FIG. 19 whichwill be discussed hereinafter, shows the details of a particularcrosspoint, such as crosspoint 1-5. Continuing now in FIG. 4, theindividual parallel processors, such as parallel processor 103, areshown having a global data connection (G), a local data connection (L)and an instruction connection (I). Each of these will be detailedhereinafter, and each serves a different purpose. For example, theglobal connection allows processor 103 to be connected to any of theseveral individual memories of memory 10, which can be for data from anyof the various individual memories.

The local memory ports of the parallel processors can each address onlythe memories that are served by three of the vertical switch matrixlinks immediately opposite the processors. Thus, processor 103 can useverticals 0, 1 and 2 of crossbar 20 to access memories 10-16, 10-15 and10-14 for data transfer in the MIMD mode. In addition, while in the MIMDmode, memory 10-13 supplies an instruction stream to processor 103. Aswill be seen, in SIMD mode all of the instructions for the processorscome from memory 10-1. Thus, instruction memory 10-13 is available fordata. In this situation, the switch is reconfigured to allow access viavertical 4 of crossbar 20. The manner in which crossbar 20 isreconfigured will be discussed hereinafter.

As shown in FIG. 4, each parallel processor 100-103 has a particularglobal bus and a particular local bus to allow the processor access tothe various memories. Thus, parallel processor 100 has a global buswhich is horizontal 2 of crossbar 20, while parallel processor 101 has aglobal bus which is horizontal 3 of crossbar 20. Parallel processor 102has as its global bus horizontal 4, while parallel processor 103 has asits global bus horizontal 5.

The local buses from all of the processors share the same horizontal 6.However, horizontal 6, as can be seen, is separated into four portionsvia three-state buffers 404, 405 and 406. This effectively providesisolation on horizontal 6 so that each local input to each processor canaccess different memories. This arrangement has been constructed forefficiency of layout area on the silicon chip. These buffers allow thevarious portions to be connected together when desired in the manner tobe detailed hereinafter for the common communication of data between theprocessors. This structure allows data from memories 10-0, 10-2, 10-3and 10-4 to be distributed to any of the processors 100-103.

When the processor is operating in the MIMD operational mode, theinstruction port of the processors, for example, the instruction port ofprocessor 103, is connected through crosspoint 4-7 to instruction memory10-13. In this mode crosspoints 4-2, 4-3, 4-4, 4-5 and 4-6, as well as4-1, are disabled. In this mode crosspoint 4-0 is a dynamicallyoperative crosspoint, thereby allowing the transfer processor to alsoaccess instruction memory 10-13, if necessary. This same procedure isavailable with respect to crosspoint 9-7 (processor 102) and crosspoint14-7 (processor 101).

When the system is in the SIMD mode crosspoint 4-7 is inactive, andcrosspoints 4-2 through 4-6 may be activated, thereby allowing memory10-13 to become available for data to all of the processors 100-103 viavertical 4 of crossbar 20. Concurrently, while in the SIMD mode buffers401, 402 and 403 are activated, thereby allowing instruction memory 10-1to be accessed by all of the processors 100-103 via their respectiveinstruction inputs. If buffer 403 is activated, but not buffers 401 and402, then processors 100 and 101 can share instructor memory 10-1 andoperate in the SIMD mode while processors 102 and 103 are free to run inMIMD mode out of memories 10-13 and 10-9 respectively.

Crosspoints 18-0, 13-0, 8-0 and 3-0 are used to allow transfer processor11 to be connected to the instruction inputs of any of the parallelprocessors. This communication can be for various purposes, includingallowing the transfer processor to have access to the parallelprocessors in situations where there are cache misses.

FIG. 7 is a stylized diagram showing the operation of parallelprocessors 100-103 operating with respect to memories 55 and 55A in theshared mode (as previously discussed with respect to FIG. 5) andoperating with respect to memories 65-68 in the distributed mode (aspreviously discussed with respect to FIG. 6). The manner of achievingthis flexible arrangement of parallel processors will be discussed andshown to depend upon the operation of crossbar switch 20 which isarranged with a plurality of links to be individually operated atcrosspoints thereof to effect the different arrangements desired.

Before progressing to discuss the operation of the crossbar switch, itmight be helpful to review FIG. 3 and alternate arrangements where a bus34 can be established connected to a series of processors 30-32, eachprocessor having the configuration shown with respect to FIGS. 1 and 2.External memory 35 is shown in FIG. 2 as a single memory 15, the samememory discussed previously. This memory could be a series of individualmemories, both local and located remotely. The structure shown in FIG. 3can be used to integrate any number of different type of processorstogether with the image system processor discussed herein, assuming thatall of the processors access a single global memory space having aunified addressing capability. This arrangement also assumes a unifiedcontention arrangement for the memory access via bus 34 so that all ofthe processors can communicate and can maintain order while they eachperform their own independent operations. Host processor 33 can sharesome of the policing problems between the various processors 30-32 toassure an orderly flow of data via bus 34.

Image Processing

In image processing there are several levels of operations that can beperformed on an image. These can be thought about as being differentlevels with the lowest level being simply to message the data to performbasic operations without understanding the contents of the data. Thiscan be, for example, removal of extraneous specks from an image. Ahigher level would be to operate on a particular portion of the data,for example, recognizing that some portion of the data represents acircle, but not fully understanding that the circle is one part of ahuman face. A still higher operational aspect of image processing wouldbe to process the image understanding that the various circles and othershapes form a human image, or other image, and to then utilize thisinformation in various ways.

Each of these levels of image processing is performed most efficientlywith the processors operating in a particular type of operational mode.Thus, when operations are performed on data locally grouped togetherwithout an attempt to understand the entire image, it is usually moreefficient to use the SIMD operational mode where all, or a group of,processors operate from a single instruction and from multiple datasources. When operating in a higher mode where image pixel data isrequired from various aspects of the entire image in order to understandthe entire image, the most efficient operational mode would be the MIMDmode where the processors each operate from individual instructions.

It is important to understand that when the system is operating in theSIMD mode, the entire pixel image can be processed through the variousprocessors operating from a single instruction stream. This would be,for example, when the entire image is to be cleaned, or the image isenhanced to show various corners or edges. Then all of the image datapasses through the processors in the SIMD mode, but at any one time datafrom various different areas of the image cannot be processed in adifferent manner for different purposes. The general operationalcharacteristic of a SIMD operation is that at any period of time arelatively small amount of the data with respect to the entire image isbeing operated on. This is followed, in sequential fashion, by more databeing operated on in the same manner.

This is in contrast to the MIMD mode where data from various parts ofthe image is being processed concurrently, some using differentalgorithms. In this arrangement, different instructions are operating ondifferent data at the same time to achieve a desired result. A simpleexample would include many different SIMD algorithms (like clean,enhance, extract) operating concurrently or pipelined on many differentprocessors. Another example with MIMD would include the implementationof algorithms with the same data flow although using unique arithmeticor logical functions.

FIGS. 8 and 9 show the prior art form of the SIMD and MIMD processorswith their respective memories. These are the preferred typologies forSIMD/MIMD for image processing. The operational modes of the system willbe discussed more fully with respect to FIGS. 59-64. In general, datapaths 80 of FIG. 8 corresponds to data paths 6010, 6020, 6030 and 6040of FIG. 60, while processors 90 of FIG. 9 corresponds to processors5901, 5911, 5921, 5931 of FIG. 59. The controller (6002 of FIG. 60) forthe data paths is not shown in FIG. 8.

Reconfigurable SIMD/MIMD

FIG. 10 shows the reconfigurable SIMD/MIMD topology of this inventionwhere several parallel processors can be interconnected via crossbarswitch 20 to a series of memories 10 and can be connected via a transferprocessor 11 to external memory 15, all on a cycle by cycle basis.

One of the problems of operating in the MIMD topology is that dataaccess can require high bandwidth as compared to operation in the SIMDmode where the effective data flow is on a serial basis or is emulatedin the topology. Thus, in the SIMD mode, the data typically flowssequentially through the various processors from one processor to thenext. This can be a blessing as well as a problem. The problem arises inthat all of the data of the image has to be processed in order to arriveat a certain point in the processing. This is accomplished in the SIMDmode in a serial fashion. However, the MIMD mode solves this type of aproblem because data from the individual memories can be obtained at anytime in the cycle, as contrasted to the operation in the SIMD where theshared memory can only be accessed upon a serial basis as the dataarrives.

However, the MIMD mode has operational bottlenecks when it is requiredto have interprocessor communication since then one processor must writethe data to a memory and then the other processor must know theinformation is there and then access that memory. This can requireseveral cycles of operational time and thus large images with vast pixeldata could require high processing times. This is a major difficulty. Inthe structure of FIG. 10, as discussed, these problems have beenovercome because the crossbar switch can serve to, on a cycle by cyclebasis if necessary, interconnect various processors together to workfrom a single instruction for a period of time or to work independentlyso that data which is stored in a first memory can remain in that memorywhile a different processor is for, one cycle or for a period of time,connected to that same memory. In essence, in some of the prior art, thedata must be moved from memory to memory for access by the variousprocessors, which in the instant system the data can remain constant inthe memory while the processors are switched as necessary between thememories. This allows for complete flexibility of processor and memoryoperation as well as optimal use of data transfer resources.

A specific example of the processing of data in the various SIMD andMIMD modes can be shown with respect to FIGS. 12 and 13. In FIG. 12there is shown an image 125 having a series of pixels 0-n. Note thatwhile in the image a row is shown having only four pixels, this is byway of example only, and a typical image would have perhaps a thousandrows, each row having a thousand pixels. At any one point in time thenumber of pixels in a row and the number of rows will vary. For ourpurposes, we will assume that the row has four pixels. One way ofrepresenting these pixels in memory 124 is to put them into individualaddressable spaces shown as pixels 0, pixel 1 down to pixel n in memory124. Of course, this can be one memory or a series of memories, as willbe discussed hereinafter. The memories could be arranged such that eachrow is stored in a different memory.

Assume now that it is desirable to process all of the data, either forall of the pixels or for any subgroup of the pixels, so that all of thedata is processed by the same instruction and is returned back tomemory. In this manner the data from memory 124 pixel 0 would be loadedinto processor 120 and then shifted from processors 120 to 121, to 122,to 123, and at each shift new data would be entered. Using thisapproach, each of the processors 120-123 has an opportunity to perform afunction on the data as well as to observe the functions previouslyperformed on the data. When the chain is finished, the data is returnedto memory. This cycle can continue so that all of the pixels in thesubset, or all of the pixels in the image, can be processed sequentiallythrough the system. This type of operation is performed best in the SIMDmode.

This is in contrast to the arrangement shown in FIG. 13 where the MIMDdata flow is illustrated. In such a system, it is perhaps desirable tohave pixels 0 through 3 and 250-500 processed in a particular manner,while other pixels from other image regions (which differ from a certainregion 3 of the image) are processed in a different manner. In this waythen processor 120 would be arranged to process pixels 0-3 and pixels250-500 while processor 121 is arranged to process pixels 50-75 andpixels 2000-3000. Each region can then be processed using differentalgorithms or by the same algorithm but with program flow changes thatare dependant on the data contents. These pixels are all processed inparallel and stored at various memory locations. In this mode the MIMDoperation would be faster than the SIMD operation except in situationswhere data would have to move from processor 121 to processor 120, inwhich case there would have to be a movement of data in the memorybank.This interprocessor data movement could be required, for example, insituations where data processed from a particular region is important indetermining how to process data from another region, or for determiningexactly what the total image represents. Just as it is difficult todetermine the shape of an elephant from a grasp of its trunk, it isequally difficult to obtain meaningful information from an image withoutaccess to different portions of the pixel data.

Turning now to FIG. 14, there is graphically illustrated a systemutilizing the present invention. Crossbar switch 20 allows processors100-103 to access individual memories M1-M4 of memory 10, and on a cycleby cycle basis. The structure shown in FIG. 14 allows the operationdescribed in FIG. 12 with respect to the SIMD operation such that thedata in the memory elements, M1-M4 remains stationary and theconnections from the processor switch. The continual flow of the processis enhanced by having more memory elements than actually utilized by theprocessors at a given instance. Thus, data can move in and out fromthese "extra" memory elements, and these extra elements can be cycledinto the operational stream. In such an arrangement, data in and dataout memory elements would, on a cycle by cycle basis, be differentmemory elements. Note that the data in and data out memories areswitched through the crossbar and thus can be positioned in any of thememory elements. Thus, instead of moving the data between memories, theprocessor connection is sequentially changed.

Turning now to FIG. 15, the MIMD mode is shown such that processors100-103 are connected through crossbar switch 20 to various memories.Typically, these connections would last through several cycles and thus,the processors each would be connected to the respective memories for aperiod of time. While this is not necessary, it would be the mosttypical operation in the MIMD mode. For any processor, or group ofprocessors operating in the MIMD mode of FIG. 15, crossbar switch 20can, on a cycle by cycle basis, be operated so that data from aparticular memory element is immediately made available to any of theother processors so that the data can either be cycled through the otherprocessors or operated on a one-time basis.

Reconfigurable Interprocessor Communication

FIG. 16 shows the diagram of interprocessor communication when thesystem is operating in the MIMD mode when the various processors mustcommunicate with each other. A processor, such as processor 100, sends amessage through crossbar switch 20 to the shared parameter memory whileat the same time registering a message (interrupt) in the destinationprocessor that a parameter message is waiting. The destinationprocessor, which can be any one of the other processors such asprocessor 102, then via crossbar switch 20 accesses the shared parametermemory to remove the message. The destination processors, for example,then could reconfigure itself in accordance with the received message.This reconfiguration can be internal to provide a particular system modeof operation or can be an instruction as to which memories to access andwhich memories not to access for a period of time.

The question of accessing memories (contention) is important because aprocessor can waste a lot of time trying to access a memory when anotherprocessor is using that memory for an extended period. The efficientoperation of the system would be very difficult to achieve without theinterprocessor coupling via the communication link.

Another type of message which is communicated between the processorsrelates to the synchronization of the processors. These messages and theprecise manner in which synchronization is accomplished will bediscussed hereinafter. FIG. 2 shows the full system arrangement wherethe processors are interconnected for interrupting or polling betweenthem to control sync, memory and crossbar allocation on a cycle by cyclebasis.

It is the communication links between the processors which functionoutside of the crossbar switch that supports a more efficientutilization of the memory. The number of cycles that are required toswitch operational modes, for example between SIMD and MIMD, isdependent upon the amount of other operations which must be performed.These other operations are, for example, loading of code in variousinstruction memories and the loading of data into data memories forsubsequent operation. The external communications help this function byestablishing which memories a particular processor may access andinstructing all of the processors as to their ability to access memoriesso that the processors are not waiting in line for access when theaccess is being denied.

The instructions between processors can be by interrupt and by polling.The interrupt can be in any one of the well-known interruptconfigurations where data can be transmitted with a flag to point toparticular message locations within the shared parameter memory or canoperate directly on a pointer basis within the processor. The ability toestablish on a cycle by cycle basis which processor has access to whichmemory is important in establishing the ability of the system to operatein the MIMD mode so that data can reside in a particular memory, and theprocessors which have access to that data are continually shifted. Usingthis arrangement then, several cycles of time, which would be requiredto move data from memory to memory if the memories were on a fixedrelationship to processors, are dramatically eliminated. Thecommunication link includes the master processor.

Transfer Processor

Transfer processor 11 shown in FIGS. 1 and 2 and in FIG. 57 transfersdata between external memory and the various internal memory elements.Transfer processor 11 is designed to operate from packet requests suchthat any of the parallel processors or the master processor can asktransfer processor 11 to provide data for any particular pixel or agroup of pixels or data, and the transfer processor will transfer thenecessary data to or from external and internal memory without furtherprocessor intervention instructions. This then allows transfer processor11 to work autonomously and to process data in and out of the systemwithout monitoring by any of the processors. Transfer processor 11 isconnected to all of the memories through switch matrix 20 and isarranged to contend with the various links for access to the memories.Transfer processor 11 for any particular link may be assigned the lowestpriority and access a memory when another processor is not accessingthat memory. The data that is being moved by the transfer processor isnot only the data for processing pixels, but instruction streams forcontrolling the system. These instruction streams are loaded into theinstruction memory via crossbar switch 20. Transfer processor 11 can bearranged with a combination of hardware and software to effect thepurpose of data transfer.

Master Processor

The master processor, shown in more detail in FIG. 29, is used forscheduling and control of the entire system, including the control ofthe transfer processor as well as the interaction between the variousprocessors. The master processor has a connection through the crossbarswitch to all of the memories and is interconnected with the otherprocessors on the communication channel. The master processor cancontrol the type of data and the manner in which the data is obtained bythe transfer processor depending upon the pixel information and theparticular purpose for which the information is being obtained. Thus,regions of the image can be scanned under different scan modes dependingupon the purpose for the scan. This is controlled by the masterprocessor working in conjunction with the parallel processors. Theparallel processors may each also control the transfer processor, eitheralone or in conjunction with the master processor, again depending uponthe purpose for the operation.

The contention for the memory to the crossbar switch can be arrangedsuch that the parallel processors have higher priority, the masterprocessor has lower priority, and the transfer processor has third orlowest priority for any particular memory on a particular link.

FIG. 11 shows a listing of various operations or algorithms which theimaging processing system would typically perform. A typical type ofoperation would be optical character recognition, target recognition ormovement recognition. In each of these situations, the associated imageprocessing would be controlled by the kind of operations to beperformed.

In FIG. 11, the types of operations which are typically performed by theparallel processors are shown below line 1100 and the types ofoperations which are typically performed by the master processor areshown above line 1100. While this arrangement of operations isarbitrarily divided between the master processor and the parallelprocessors, the types of operations required to achieve the variousoperations shown tend to make them more suitable for either the masterprocessor or the parallel processor.

As an example of image processing starting from an image and workinghigher in the hierarchy of operations, the image is first received byimage enhancement 1111. In some situations it is necessary to compressor decompress the image via boxes 1112 and 1113. The image is then movedupwards through the various possibilities for edge extraction 1109, linelinkage 1107, corner or vertices recognition 1105, histogram 1110,statistical properties 1108 and segmentation 1106. These boxes can allbe skipped and the image provided directly to template matching 1102 forthe purpose of determining the image identification 1101. There arevarious methods of achieving this identification, all of which are notnecessary for every image, and all of which are well known in the art asindividual algorithms or methods.

Enhancement block 1111 is a process which essentially cleans an image,removes extraneous signals and enhances details of the image, such aslines. Box 1109, edge extraction, is a process which determines thecauses or existence of edges in an image. Box 1107 connects all thelines which have been extracted from the image and links them togetherto form longer lines. The process then removes extraneous dashes causedby inconsistencies in the data. Box 1105, corners and vertices, is analgorithm which determines where the corners of an image might belocated. Once these geometric shapes are found, a process of groupingand labeling, block 1104, can then be used to identify major groupingsof objects, such as circles and rectangles.

At this point, the operations have centered their focus on a smallerregion of the image whereas in block 1111 the entire image is typicallyoperated on. An alternate path after every enhancement is to performstatistical analysis, such as a histogram, 1110, of the intensities ofthe pixels. One purpose of a histogram is to discover the number of onesor the number of ones in a particular axis or projection which wouldthen be useful statistical information to quantify the presence of someobject or orientation of an object. This will be discussed hereinafter.

Block 1108, statistical properties, then extracts from these histogramsthe proper statistical properties. Continuing upward, block 1106 is aprocess of segmentation whereby the statistical properties could be usedto segment different objects. As an example, several disconnectedobjects could then be quite easily segmented. Then through theprogression to grouping and labeling 1104, where an image has differentobjects identified with specific labels. Connector component algorithmsare typical in this area. At this point also certain geometric featurescan be analyzed 1103, particularly the perimeter of the object. Othershape descripters, Euler numbers, and a description of the surface canbe obtained and used for future matching operations. Matching operationslevel 1102 is reached where similar information which is stored astemplates or libraries are accessed and compared against the data thatis extracted from the lower level. This can be either geometric, surfacedescription or optical flow information. Once a match has occurred,these matches then are statistically weighted to determine the degree ofcertainty that an object has been identified as shown by block 1101.Once we have identified objects, we will in some applications such asstereopsis or motion have a three dimensional representation of theworld knowing what the objects are and where they are placed in theworld. At this point we can then re-render the scene using a graphicspipeline as shown by the right side of FIG. 11.

The first block, geometric model 1114, identifies a representation ofthis scene which basically is three coordinates showing position and ageometric description of the object such as its shape, density andreflective properties. At this point, depending upon the type of object,several different routes would be used to render the scene. If therewere simple characters, two dimensional transforms would be employed. Ifthey were more complex, three dimensional worlds would be created. Ahand waving in front of a computer for use as a gesture input devicewould use this method and implement function 1116, which is a threedimensional transform. This would transform the input into a newcoordinate system, either by translating scaling or rotating the threedimensional coordinates via 3D transform block 1116. Certain objectswould be occluded by other objects. Again in the hand example, somefingers may be occluded by other fingers, and this operation usingvisibility block 1117 would then ignore the parts that were not visible.As we move down in FIG. 11 to shaded solid box 1118 we find a processwhich would generate gray scale or pixel information to give a smoothshaded solid image which would be more realistic and more lifelike thantaking the other route down to clipping box 1120. Clipping box 1120essentially clips things that are out of the field of view of the scenethat is being generated.

In a special case of rendering fonts on a computer screen or on a laserprinter or such, box 1119, font compilation, would be used to createsophisticated fonts of multiple sizes and shapes. Then the final processin the graphics program would be actually to draw the objects, via block1121, which might be as simple as drawing dots and lines that connectthe dots. We are now back at the original level of image enhancement1111 and have recreated a synthetic representation of original imagebased upon a model which has been derived from that original image.

It is understood that once a character is recognized or a movement isrecognized, an output can be obtained, either in binary code orotherwise, to control further processing of the same image via outputcontrol 1122 by the operation and the combination of the parallelprocessors and the master processor working with the image processingsystem.

Generally, the boxes shown below line 1100 are typically operationallyefficient to be performed in the SIMD mode and require a vast amount ofprocessing. These are performed with the parallel processing operation.The operations above line 1100 require relatively less processingcapabilities and are less bandwidth intensive. Accordingly, they areperformed by a single processor. Also note that with respect to theoperations, as the hierarchy moves upwards on the chart the likelihoodis that the MIMD operations would be the preferred operation. Often theSIMD and MIMD operations overlap, and both types of operational modesare required.

The main reason why two different types of processors are necessary isbecause of the level of the processing. High level processing, asperformed by the master processor, preferably uses floating pointarithmetic for high precision. High precision floating point processorsrequire more real estate space and are slower to operate fromnon-floating point processors. Therefore, if all of the processors werethe same, there could be fewer processors on a given chip which wouldincrease the problem of bandwidth and slow down the operation of thesystem. On the other hand, the low level processors do not requirefloating point arithmetic and thus can be made faster and smaller, whichin turn allows more processors to be constructed on a given chip. Thebus structure shown utilizing a crossbar switch can therefore takeseveral different types of processors as required and switch them intothe system to perform portions of every operation if necessary.

The master processor is designed to operate primarily on lists such asinformation lists and display lists, whereas the parallel processors areintended to operate on arrays. At the low level image processing most ofthe information can be described as two dimensional arrays, whereas atthe higher level, the information is described as lists ofmultidimensional coordinates. The manipulation of these two differenttypes of data representations requires different processing structureswhich is another motivation for the master and parallel processorshaving different structures.

The master processor of the preferred embodiment would have featuressimilar to a RISC processor which is primarily intended for generalpurpose computing operations, whereas the parallel processors are morelike digital signal processors (DSP) which tend to be specializedprocessors for arithmetic operations. Thus, the system could beoptimized for the types of information processing required for imagesystems, while still maintaining the high degree of processingcapability and the total flexibility achieved by using both types ofprocessors on the same data.

Texas Instruments TMS 320 DSP processors are disclosed in coassignedU.S. Pat. Nos. 4,577,282, 4,713,748 and 4,912,636. Further background isdisclosed in the publications Second Generation TMS 320 Users Guide andThird Generation TMS 320 Users Guide from Texas InstrumentsIncorporated. These patents, said application and publications arehereby incorporated herein by reference.

Memory Structure

FIG. 17 shows a view of the image processing system, as discussed withrespect to FIGS. 1 and 2, showing a particular layout of memory. Itshould be kept in mind, however, that the particular memory sizes havebeen selected for a particular project, and any type of arrangement ofmemory and memory capacities can be utilized with this invention. Theparameter section of memory 10 can be incorporated within memory 10 orcan be, if desired, a stand-alone memory. Under some conditions theparameter memory need not be present depending upon the communicationrequirements of the processors.

Crossbar Switch

FIG. 18 shows the prioritization circuitry of crossbar switch 20. Eachvertical of the crossbar switch is connected in a round robin fashion toa prioritization circuit internal to the particular crosspoint. In everyvertical the lowest horizontal, which is associated with the transferprocessor, is not included in the prioritization wiring. This is so thatwhen none of the other horizontals in the same vertical have beenselected, the transfer processor has access to the memory. The exactmanner in which the prioritization circuitry operates and the manner inwhich the lowest horizontal operates will be detailed more fullyhereinafter with respect to FIGS. 19 and 20.

FIG. 18 also shows the special situation of the instruction vertical Ifor the parallel processors. The instruction vertical for parallelprocessor 103 is connected through crosspoint 4-7, which crosspoint isenabled by a signal on the SIMD lead via invertor 1801. This same signalis provided to every horizontal crosspoint 4-1 through 4-6 in the samevertical to render those crosspoints inactive. This signal and themanner in which the instruction vertical is connected to memory will bediscussed hereinafter.

Turning now to FIG. 19, the details of an exemplary crosspoint 1-5 isshown in detail. In the figure, the five sided box with a control lineentering the side is a control switch, typically a FET device.

The functionality of the crosspoint logic is described. The crosspointlogic contains four functional blocks. These will each be described. Thefirst functional block is address recognition block 1901 which comparesfive bits of the address supplied by the processor on bus 1932 with theunique five bit value of the memory module 10-15 (connected tocrosspoint 1-5 via vertical 1 as shown in FIG. 4) presented on bus 1930.The value presented on bus 1930 indicates the location of the memorywithin the address space. The comparison is achieved by five two-inputexclusive-NOR gates 1920-1924 which perform individual bit comparisons.The outputs of these five gates are supplied to five of the inputs ofthe six input NAND gate 1910. The sixth input of gate 1910 is connectedto the global access signal 1933 which indicates that a memory requestis actually being performed and the address output by the processorshould actually be compared. Only when signal 1933 is a logic one andthe outputs of gates 1920-1924 are also all one will the output of gate1910 be a logical zero. A logic zero indicates that a valid request formemory 10-15 is being made.

Digressing, a modification that can be made to this address recognitionlogic is to include a seventh input to gate 1910 (enable SIMD) that canbe used as an enable signal for the crosspoint logic. A logical zero onthe enable signal will cause the address recognition logic to bedisabled, thus disabling the entire crosspoint. This is used on thecrosspoints on vertical buses 4, 9, and 14 which connect to horizontalbuses 1 to 6, to enable the crosspoints in SIMD mode and disable them inMIMD mode.

The second functional block is token latch 1904. This block outputs asignal B1 which is used to indicate the start point of the round-robinprioritization. Signal B1 connects to the input signal B of the nextcrosspoint logic vertically below crosspoint 1-5, (crosspoint 1-4).(Signal B1 of crosspoint 1-1 is wrapped around to connect to signal B ofcrosspoint 1-6 to create a circular prioritization scheme as shown inFIG. 18). Only one signal B1 within the crosspoint logics associatedwith vertical bus 1 will output a logical zero. All the others willoutput logical ones. This is achieved by only loading one crosspointtoken latch 1904 with a value of zero at system initialization, and theother crosspoint token latches with a one. This is achieved byconnecting the preset value signal to a logical zero on one crosspointand a logical one on the others and activating clock5. This loads thepreset value through transistor 1956 into the latch comprised ofinverter 1946 and inverter 1945. This value in turn is clocked withclock2 through transistor 1955 into the latch comprising inverter 1947and inverter 1948. The output of inverter 1947 is signal B1. This signalis supplied to one input of the two-input NAND gate 1913 whose otherinput is the output of gate 1910. The output of gate 1913 is supplied toone input of the two-input NAND gate 1914, whose other input comes fromthe output of gate 1911. The output of gate 1914 is clocked by clock4through transistor 1944 into the earlier described latch of gates 1945and 1946. It is arranged that clock2 and clock4 are never activesimultaneously, and that clock4 is not active when clock5 is active.

The logic of the token latch records which crosspoint logic associatedwith memory 10-15 last gained access to the memory. This is indicated bya logical zero B1 signal being output by that crosspoint latch. Thetoken latch logic works in conjunction with the prioritization block, tobe described next, to cause the crosspoint which last accessed thememory to have the lowest priority access, if future multiplesimultaneous accesses are attempted to the memory. How the token latchcontents are altered will be described after the prioritization blockhas been described.

The prioritization block 1902 contains two two-input NAND gates 1911 and1912. The two inputs of gate 1912 are supplied from the output of gates1910 and 1911. The output of gate 1912 is signal A1 which connects tosignal A of the vertically below crosspoint (1-4). One output of gate1911 is the previously mentioned signal B which is connected to signalB1 from the token latch in the logic circuit associated with the nexthigher vertical (crosspoint 1-6). The other signal is also thepreviously described signal A which is connected to signal A1 from theprioritization block in the next higher vertical (crosspoint logic 1-6).

The prioritization logic forms a circular ripple path that begins withthe crosspoint logic vertically below the last crosspoint to access thememory. This is indicated by a logical zero on a B1 signal. This causesthe output of gate 1911 of the next vertical crosspoint below to be alogical one. This is gated by gate 1912 with the output of gate 1910 inorder to produce signal A1. If the output of gate 1910 is a logical one,indicating that an address match by the address recognition logic wasn'tfound, then signal A1 will be a zero. This is passed to the next lowervertical crosspoint, causing its gate 1911 to output a one, and so onaround the circular ripple path. If however the output of gate 1910 is azero, then the signal A1 will be output to the next crosspoint as alogical one. This, in conjunction with a one on all subsequent B inputs(since only the ripple start point can output a zero B signal), causesall other gates 1911 around the ripple path to output logical zeros.Thus, a crosspoint can gain access to a memory only when it has a one onthe output of its gate 1911 and it is producing a logical zero on theoutput of its gate 1910. This occurs only when an address match is foundby the address recognition block and the crosspoint is the first torequest a memory access from the start of the circular ripple path.

The management of the token latch contents will now be explained. Gates1913 and 1914 are designed to make sure that the last crosspoint to gainmemory access holds a zero in the token latch. Consider the followingcases:

1. The token in token latch 1904 is a zero and no bus requires memoryaccess. The zero ripples completely around the circular carry path andreturns to signal A of the originating crosspoint as a zero, causing theoutput of gate 1911 to be a one. The zero already held in the tokenlatch (signal B1) causes the output of gate 1913 to be a one. These twosignals cause the output of gate 1914 to be a zero, which is loaded intothe latch 1945/1946 by clock4 via transistor 1953, thus maintaining azero in the token latch, thereby continuing the ripple propagation.

2. The token in token latch 1904 is a zero and one of the othercrosspoints requires access to the memory. In this case, signal A willbe received back as a one, which in conjunction with the one on input Bwill cause the output of gate 1911 to be a zero, causing the output ofgate 1914 to be a one. This is then loaded into token latch 1904 byclock4 as a one. The token latch has thus become a one since anothercrosspoint has Just gained memory access.

3. The token in token latch 1904 is a one and a crosspoint prioritizedhigher is requesting memory access. In this case A and B are bothreceived as ones and, as in the above case, the token will similarly beloaded with a one.

4. The token in token latch 1904 is a one, the crosspoint is requestingmemory access, and no higher priority crosspoint is requesting memoryaccess. In this case either A or B will be received as a zero, causingthe output of gate 1911 to be a one. The output of gate 1910 will be azero, since the address recognition logic is detecting an address match.This will cause the output of gate 1913 to be a one. Since both inputsof gate 1914 are one, it will output a zero, which is loaded into tokenlatch 1904 by clock4. The token latch has thus become a zero because ithas just been granted memory access.

The fourth block of logic is the grant latch. The output of gate 1910 ispassed through an inverter 1940 into one input of a two-input NAND gate1915, whose other input is connected to the output of gate 1911. The onecondition of a logical one on the output of gate 1911 and a zero on theoutput of gate 1910 causes the output of gate 1915 to be a zero.(Otherwise it is a one). This condition occurs when the crosspoint issuccessfully granted access to the memory, and can occur on only one ofthe crosspoints associated with the memory. The output of gate 1915 isloaded into latch 1941/1942 through transistor 1951 by clock1. (Inpractice clock1 and clock4 will operate together so that the token latchand the grant latch are updated together). The output of gate 1942 isloaded through transistor 1952 by clock2 into latch 1943/1944. Theoutput of gate 1944 is passed to gate 1949 which produces the connectsignal to the crosspoint switches 1905, which connect processor bus 1932to memory bus 1931. These crosspoint switches can be individual n-typetransistors in their simplest implementation.

The output of gate 1942 is also supplied to the gate of transistor 1958which connects between signal 1934 and the source of transistor 1957,whose drain connects to ground, and whose gate is connected to clock2.Transistors 1957 and 1958 cause signal 1934 to be connected to groundwhen the crosspoint has successfully been granted memory access. Thisindicates to the processor that it can proceed with the memory access.If however signal 1934 does not go low when a memory access isattempted, then another crosspoint has gained memory access and theprocessor must halt and re-request access to the memory. The round-robinprioritization scheme described ensures that only a limited number ofretries need be performed before access is granted.

An example of the timing of the crossbar signals is given in FIG. 20. Inthis figure PP2 and PP3 are both trying to access the same RAM everycycle, but the round-robin priority logic causes them to alternate. PP2is calculating and outputting addresses S, T and U, and PP3 iscalculating and outputting addresses V and W. It can be seen from the "5MS address" signals how the GRANTED-signal is used to multiplex betweenthe last address (in the case of a retry) and the new address beingcalculated. The PPs assume that if the GRANTED- signal is not active bythe end of the slave phase then contention occurred, and the masterupdate phases of the fetch, address and execute pipeline stages arekilled.

Integration of the Switch Matrix

As discussed herein, memory contention is handled by a token passingarrangement having logic circuitry individual to each crosspoint. In oneembodiment, the logic circuitry is positioned in direct association witheach crosspoint. Thus, since the crosspoints are spatially distributedacross the substrate in conjunction with their respective ports, thecontention control logic is likewise distributed spatially. In additionto saving space the actual logic of the circuit can grow as the switchgrows. In this manner the logic can be positioned in one of the layersof the silicon so that no additional silicon chip area is consumed. Thishas the advantage of conserving space while also minimizing connectionsto and from the token passing circuit.

Synchronized MIMD

Each processor 100-103, as shown in FIG. 21, has associated with it aregister 2100-2103 respectively for indicating if synchronized operationis required. Also included, as will be seen, is a register for holdingthe address (identity) of the other processors synchronized with thatprocessor. The instruction stream contains instructions which indicatethe beginning and end of a series of instructions that must be executedin synchronization with the processors. Once the code for starting asynchronized instruction stream arrives at a processor, that processor,and all the processors in the synchronized set, can only executeinstructions in lock step with each other until such time as the end ofsynchronized code instruction is encountered.

Using this approach, no messages need be transferred between processors,and the processors will remain in step for one cycle, or a number ofcycles, depending upon the instruction stream being executed. Noexternal control, other than the instruction stream, is required toestablish the synchronization relationships between processors.

Turning to FIG. 22, within each parallel processor 100-103, there is async register 2207 containing four bits labelled 3, 2, 1, 0 that relateto processors 103, 102, 101 and 100 respectively. One bit relates toeach processor 100-103. The other processor(s) to which a particularprocessor will synchronize is indicated by writing a one to the bitscorresponding to those processors. The other processor(s) which areexpecting to be synchronized will similarly have set the appropriatebits in their sync register(s).

Code that is desired to be executed in synchronization is indicated bybounding it with LCK (Lock) and ULCK (Unlock) instructions. Theinstructions following the LCK, and those up to and including the ULCK,will be fetched in lock-step with the other parallel processor(s).(There must, therefore, be the same number of instructions between theLCK and ULCK instructions in each synchronized parallel processor).

It is more usually synchronized data transfer that is required ratherthan synchronized fetching of instructions. It is a consequence of theparallel processors' pipelines however that the transfer(s) coded inparallel with the LCK instruction and those up to and including theinstruction immediately preceding the ULCK instruction, will besynchronous. They may not necessarily (due to memory access conflicts)occur in exactly the same machine cycle, but the transfers coded in thefollowing instruction will not proceed until all the synchronizedtransfers of the previous instruction have occurred. The order of theload and store would otherwise be upset by memory access conflicts.

The knowledge that synchronized code is being executed is recorded bythe S (synchronized) bit in each status register. (This bit is notactually set or reset until the master phase of the address pipelinestage of the LCK or ULCK instructions, respectively, but the effect ofthe LCK or ULCK instruction affects the fetch of the next instructionduring the slave phase). This bit is cleared by reset and by interruptsonce the status register has been pushed.

Continuing in FIG. 22, the four bits for each of the sync registers 2207are set by software depending upon the desired synchronization betweenthe various processors. Thus, assuming that processor 100 is to besynchronized with processor 103, then the bits shown would be loadedinto the respective registers 2207. These bits would be 1, 0, 0, 1showing that processor 3 is to be synchronized with processor 0. Also asshown, as processors 101 and 102 are to be synchronized, theirrespective sync control registers would each contain the bits 0, 1, 1,0.

Turning now to processor 100, it should be noted that the presence of a0 in any bit of sync register 2207 causes a logic one to appear on theoutput of the respective NAND gate. Thus, with the example shown, theNAND gates 2203 and 2204 would have logic ones on their respectiveoutput. These ones are supplied to the input of NAND gate 2206. NANDgate 2206 will not allow processor 100 to execute any more instructionsof code until all of its respective inputs are one. Note that thepresence of the zeros in the bit positions 1 and 2 of register 2207causes the respective gates 2203 and 2204 to ignore the presence of anysignals on leads 1 and 2 of bus 40. Thus, the execution of code wascontrolled by gate 2206, in this case in response to the information onleads 0 and 3 of bus 40. The lock instruction will cause the S bit tobecome set which is a logic 1 to one of the inputs to gate 2201. For themoment we will ignore the presence of the okay to sync signal which is asignal which controls the timing of the actual execute for theprocessor. The output of gate 2201 for each of the processors syncregisters is connected to a different lead. Thus, gate 2201 fromprocessor 100 is connected to lead 0, while gate 2201 from processor 101is connected to lead 1, etc. Note that the output of gate 2201 fromprocessor 100 is connected to the 0 input of gates 2205 of all of theother processor registers. Since in processor 101 and 102, gates 2205are connected to logic zero, this has no effect. However, in processor103 where gate 2205 is connected to a logic 1 of the register, it isthus controlled by the output on lead 0 of bus 40 which in fact iscontrolled by the output of gate 2201. Thus, processor 103 is controlledby the actions which occur within processor 100, which is exactly whatwe desire if processor 103 is to be synchronized with processor 100. Areview of the circuitry would show that the same function operates inreverse from processor 103 to processor 100 since in processor 103 gate2201 is associated with lead 3 of bus 40, which in turn is associatedwith gate 2202 of processor 100, which in turn is also controlled by aone in sync register 2207.

Now returning to the signal on gate 2201 which is the okay to syncsignal. When that signal goes to logic 1, then it is okay to executecode, and all of the other processors having a one in the sync registerbit 0 position of the respective register will operate insynchronization with that signal. Thus, if the okay to sync signal goeslow signifying a problem with the cache memory or any other problem withthe execution of code, all of the processors synchronized therewith willwait until the problem is clear. Thus, we have full synchronizationbetween processors as controlled by the codes periodically stored in therespective registers. All of the processors can be synchronized or anycombination of processors can be synchronized with each other, and therecan be any number of different synchronizations occurring betweenprocessors.

Since it is the instruction fetch that is synchronized, it is possibleto interrupt synchronized code. This will immediately cause the parallelprocessor's okay to sync signal to become inactive. Cache misses andcontention will have a similar effect, keeping the machines in step. Inthe case of contention, however, the two instructions following the oneexperiencing contention will have already been fetched into the pipelinebefore the pipeline pauses.

It is possible to put idle instructions into synchronized code, thuspausing the operation of all the synchronized parallel processors untila particular parallel processor has been interrupted and returned fromits interrupt routine.

Since it is necessary to be able to interrupt synchronized code, anyinstruction that specified the program counter PC in any one processoras a destination will immediately disable the effect of the S bit of thestatus register (with the same timing as the ULCK instruction), but theS bit will remain set. Once the two delay slot instructions havecompleted, the effect of the S bit is re-enabled. This mechanismprevents problems with being unable to interrupt synchronized delay slotinstructions. The sync logic therefore treats branches, calls andreturns (implemented as a PC load followed by two delay slotinstructions) as a single instruction. The sync signal will be driveninactive during the two delay slot instructions and they will be fetchedwithout looking at the sync signals. If a LCK instruction is put in adelay slot, it will take effect after the delay slot instructions havebeen executed. Synchronized loops behave like normal code because theirbranches operate in the fetch pipeline stage and not the execute stage.

An example of how synchronization works is given in FIG. 23. In thiscase, parallel processor 2 and parallel 1 exchange the contents of theirdata DO registers (FIG. 33), assuming that A0 and A1 contain the sameaddresses in each parallel processor. It also assumes that A0 and A1point to different RAMs to avoid contention. (It would still work ifthey pointed to the same RAM, but would take extra cycles).

In this example parallel processor 1 arrives at its LCK instruction onecycle after parallel processor 2 arrives at its LCK instruction.Parallel processor 2 has thus waited one cycle. They then perform thestores simultaneously but parallel processor 2 then has a cache misswhen fetching the load instruction. Both parallel processors wait untilthe cache miss has been serviced by the transfer processor. They thenexecute the loads simultaneously and similarly the ULCKs. Parallelprocessor 1 then experiences a cache miss when fetching instruction 4,but since the parallel processors are now unlocked, parallel processor 2carries on unimpeded.

Synchronization in SIMD is implicit, so the LCK and ULCK instructionshave no purpose and so will have no effect if coded. The S bit in thestatus register will have no effect if anyone should set it to one.

The instructions shown in the appendix (LCK) is used to begin a piece ofMIMD synchronized parallel processor code. It will cause the parallelprocessor to wait until all the parallel processors indicated by ones inthe sync register are in sync with each other. The followinginstructions will then be fetched in step with the other MIMD parallelprocessors. Execution of the address and execute pipeline stages willoccur as each successive instruction is synchronously fetched. The S bitof the status register is set during the address pipeline stage of thisinstruction.

The instruction shown in the appendix (ULCK) unlocks the MIMD parallelprocessors from each other. They then resume independent instructionexecution on the next instruction fetch.

Sliced Addressing

Sliced addressing is a technique for taking adjacent information fromone memory space and distributing it in a manner to a number of separatedifferent memory spaces so that the information when it has beendistributed can be accessed simultaneously by a number of processorswithout contention.

As an example, reference is made to FIG. 24 where there is shown anexternal image memory buffer 15 having a row of adjacent pixels numbered0-127, and this row has the letter "a" referencing it. This informationis transferred, using the sliced addressing technique, via bus 2401,into memory subsystem 10 whereby the first sixteen pixels (0-15) areplaced into the first memory 10-0 referred to by address 0-15. Then thenext sixteen pixels are placed into memory 10-1. In this example thisprocess is continued through eight memories such that pixels 112-127 areplaced into final memory 10-7. The sliced addressing logic 2401 isimplemented in the transfer processor and also in the crossbar addressunits of the parallel processors which will be described hereinafter.

The prior art means of address calculation would produce in the givenexample 128 consecutive addresses. This would mean that the data wouldbe placed within one memory. In the given example the data would appearat consecutive addresses within memory 10-0. This would not allow anumber of processors simultaneous access to that information withoutcontention since they would all be trying to access the same memory.Thus, in the prior art, pixels 0-15 would be in row A of memory 0 withbits 16-31 in row B and bits 32-47 in row C, etc., until all of the 127adjacent pixels would be in various rows of memory 0. Since the variousdifferent processors are working in parallel to process information,they could all contend for access to memory 0 to various pixel bytes,and accordingly time would be wasted, and the value of the parallelprocessing would be mitigated.

FIG. 25 shows a prior art adder which is used for controlling thelocation of the address for various bits. FIG. 25 shows three single bitadders 2501, 2502, 2503, which are part of a full adder having a numberof single bits equal to the address range of the memory. These adderswork such that one bit of the address is provided to each A input of thevarious adders 2501-2503. The least significant bit of the address wouldgo to adder 2501, and the most significant bit would go to the highestsingle bit adder 2503.

The B input receives the binary representation of the amount to beindexed for the address for storage purposes. The combination of adders2501-2503 will produce a resulting address which is used for accessingmemory. Each individual adder will output a carry signal to the nexthighest numbered adder carry input signal. Each individual adder bitwill take in the three inputs A, B and carry in, and if there are two orthree ones present on any of those inputs, then the carry out from thatcell will be a one. This is supplied to the next most significant carryin input of the adder. This process is repeated for each individualadder bit to produce a resultant address of the size required to accessthe memory space. The fact that each carry out connects directly to thenext most significant carry in, means that the resultant address isalways part of a contiguous address space. In the previous example, ifan index of value one is supplied to the B inputs of the adder, then theresultant address output to memory will be one greater than the originaladdress supplied on the A inputs.

With reference to FIG. 26, the modification to the previously describednormal adder is made whereby the carry out of each cell is multiplexedwith the carry in signal supplied to each cell, such that the signalthat is passed to the next most significant carry in inputs of the addercan be selected to be either the carry out of the previous cell or thecarry in for that previous cell. As an example, consider cell 2505. Itscarry out signal is supplied to the multiplexer 2508, and themultiplexer's other input is the carry in signal to 2505. Signal B isused to control the multiplexer causing either the carry out or thecarry in of cell 2505 to be passed on the carry in input of the nextmost significant cell.

Another modification to the standard cell is to include a control inputlabelled ADD which is supplied by the same control signal that controlsthe multiplexer signal B. If a logical one is supplied on signal B, thenthe carry in signal of 2505 is supplied to the carry in signal of thenext most significant cell. The presence of a logical one on signal Balso inhibits the add function of cell 2505 such that the originaladdress supplied on input A is passed straight through to the outputwithout modification. This has the effect of protecting the address bitassociated with the presence of a one on input B. It can be seen that bysupplying a number of ones to the control signals of the modified adder,the carry out of a cell from the least significant bit can be propagateda number of cells along the length of the adder before being supplied tothe carry in of a cell which will perform the add function. This wouldbe the next most significant cell which had a zero on the ADD controlsignal. The effect of this is to protect the address contained withinthe cells which have been bypassed so that a number of bits of theaddress range have been protected from modification. With reference tothe previously described example, by supplying ones on the multiplexerand ADD control signals, an address increment from pixel 15 in memory 0can be made to pixel 16 in memory 1 so that the memory can be addressedas one continuous address space. The multiplexer control signals arereferred to as a sliced mask because they will mask out certain bitsfrom the address range and cause the data which has been distributed inmemory to be accessed as a slice indicated in FIG. 24.

It should be noted that this circuitry is used both for storing adjacentinformation or for retrieving adjacent information. Also, someinformation should be provided and stored in the same memory and shouldnot be sliced, and this is denoted by providing all zeros to the ABCleads of the slice mask. When this occurs, the individual adders2504-2506 act in the same manner as the prior art adders 2501-2503. Itis also important to keep in mind that there are different types ofdistributed data that should be sliced across several memories and notjust pixel information. This would occur anytime when it is conceivablethat several processors would be accessing the same type of informationat the same time for whatever processing would be occurring at thatpoint.

It is also important to keep in mind that to distribute memory asdisclosed in the sliced addressing mode does not in any way waste memorybecause the rows B and C which are not used for the particular pixel orother information to be stored would be used for other information. Theonly "penalty" that conceivably could occur is the additional chip spacerequired to construct the multiplexers and the additionalinterconnections of the adders. This is a minor penalty to pay for theresult of dramatically increased speed of access of memories forparallel processing while still allowing the flexibility of bothdistributing the adjacent information across many memories and allowingthe information to be stored in a single memory under control of anexternal control. Using this approach, there is no fixed relationshipfor any particular piece of information so that at various times theinformation can be distributed across many memories or the sameinformation at different times can be stored in the same memorydepending upon the use of the information.

For example, if information which at one time is sliced because it isbeing used in a parallel processing mode is later determined to be usedfor a single processor for a single period of time, it would beadvantageous to provide all zeros on the slice mask for that time periodthereby storing the information in a single memory so that a singleprocessor can then access the single memory, in this way again gainingvaluable time over the slice method. This then gives a high degree offlexibility to the design of the system and to the operational mode forstoring data.

Turning now to FIG. 27, an example of the way in which a typicalquantity of pixels may be distributed over a number of memories isshown. In this example each individual memory is two kilobytes in size,and the start and end addresses of each of these memories are indicated.For example, memory 0 begins at address all zeroes and finishes asaddress 07FF. Memory 1 begins at 0800 and ends at 0FFF and so on throughto memory 7 which begins at 3800 and ends at 3FFF. A quantity of pixelsare shown distributed in a slice across these memories, 64 pixels permemory. Consider for a moment stepping through the 64 pixels within theslice of memory 3. We can see that the pixels are arranged fromaddresses 1900-193F. The next adjacent piece of information is notresident at the next address 1940 because the information wasdistributed over the memory system in a sliced manner. This means thatthe next piece of contiguous information is at address 2100 in memory 4.The prior art method of addition, as shown in FIG. 27, would add anindex of one onto the address 193F to produce the address 1940. Aspreviously mentioned, this is not the next piece of information requiredwhich is resident in the next memory at 2100. With reference to thebottom of the figure where the operation of addition using slicedarithmetic is shown, we can see that the value 193F is represented inbinary form, and beneath that is the slice mask information similarly inbinary form. As previously described, the presence of ones within theslice mask causes the carry out from an individual adder cell to bepassed further along the carry path than the next most significantadjacent cell. In this example five adder cells are bypassed by thecarry signal because there are five contiguous ones within the slicemask. Thus, when the index of one which is supplied to the B inputs ofthe modified adder is added to the value of 193F supplied to the Ainputs of the modified adder, the carry out from the sixth leastsignificant bit bypasses the seventh through eleventh significant bitsand is passed into the carry in input of the twelfth least significantbit. This has the effect of incrementing those bits of the addressincluding the twelfth and beyond significant bits which, because eachmemory is two kilobytes in size, has the effect of incrementing to therequired address 2100 in the next memory.

Reconfigurable Memory

Before beginning a detailed description of how the MIMD/SIMD operationalmodes change the reconfigure of the memory, it would be good to reviewFIG. 4 with respect to the processors' memory and crossbarinterconnections thereof. It will be recalled that in the MIMD mode thevarious processors each obtain their instructions from a separatememory. Thus, in the embodiment shown, processor 100 is connected overits instruction vertical through crosspoint 19-7 to instruction memory10-1. Crosspoint 19-7 is normally closed except when the transferprocessor is accessing the instruction memory in which case a signal isprovided to crosspoint 19-7 to control the crosspoint and turn thecrosspoint off.

In similar manner, processor 101 is connected via its instructionvertical and crosspoint 14-7 to instruction memory 10-5. Processor 102is connected via its instruction vertical through crosspoint 9-7 toinstruction memory 10-9 while processor 103 is connected via itsinstruction vertical through crosspoint 4-7 to instruction memory 10-13.This is the arrangement for the memory processor configuration when thesystem is in the MIMD operational mode.

When all or part of the system is switched to the SIMD operational mode,it is desired to connect memory 10-1 to two or more of the processors orto a group of processors depending upon whether both SIMD and MIMD areoperating together or SIMD is operating on just a group of processors.In the embodiment shown we will assume that the SIMD operation is withrespect to all four processors 100-103. In this case instruction memory10-1 is connected to processor 100 via crosspoint 19-7 and three statebuffer 403 is activated along with crosspoint 14-7 to connect memory10-1 directly to the instruction vertical of processor 101. In similarmanner three state buffers 402 and 401 are both operated to connectmemory 10-1 to the respective instruction verticals of processors 102and 103, via crosspoints 9-7 and 4-7, respectively.

At this point the system is constructed so that all of the processors100-103 are operating from a single instruction stream provided frommemory 10-1. Memories 10-5, 10-9 and 10-13, which were used forinstructions in the MIMD mode, are now free to be used for otherpurposes. To increase memory capacity, at least on a temporary basis,these memories become available for access by all of the processors. Theprecise manner in which this is all accomplished will now be discussed.

Turning now to FIG. 28. Register 2820 contains the current operatingmode of the system. This register contains bits which indicate whetherthe system is MIMD, SIMD, or some combination (hybrid) of SIMD and MIMD.From this register two signals are supplied, one indicating MIMD, theother SIMD. While the embodiment shows one pair of signals, in actualpractice an individual pair of signals for each processor could besupplied. These signals are routed to the crosspoints and three statebuffers to select the appropriate instruction streams for theappropriate configurations. In the MIMD configuration, processors 101,102 and 103 are each executing their own instruction streams. Theseinstruction streams are pointed to by program counters 2811, 2812 and2813, respectively. These program counters are supplied to the cachelogics 2801, 2802 and 2803, respectively. These have the effect ofindicating if the instructions pointed to by the program counter arecurrently resident in the memory modules 10-5, 10-9 and 10-13,respectively. If the instructions indicated by the program counter arepresent, then the MIMD instruction address is output from the cachelogic to the respective memory, and the appropriate instruction streamfetched back from that memory on the instruction vertical to therespective processor. If the instructions are not present within memoryat this time, then the instruction execute will cease, and withreference to FIG. 4, crosspoints 13-0, 8-0 or 3-0 may be made to thetransfer processors' bus. These are used by the respective processorsfor communicating the external address of the instructions required tobe executed, and also the place within the instruction memory 10-5, 10-9or 10-13, respectively, where the next sequence of instructions are tobe stored. Once the transfer processor has fetched these instructions,an acknowledged signal is passed to the parallel processors from thetransfer processor indicating that the code has now been fetched. Theparallel processor can then perform instruction execution, again fromthe memory until such occasion as the instruction stream is found to beabsent and the process is again repeated.

In the SIMD configuration because processors 101, 102 and 103 areexecuting from the same instruction stream, the cache logics 2801, 2802and 2803 within the processors are disabled because they perform nofunction. The program counters 2811, 2812 and 2813 contents areirrelevant because they perform no purpose in fetching instructionsbecause in the SIMD configuration all instructions are fetched byprocessor 100. In the SIMD configuration, therefore, it is desirable touse memories 10-5, 10-9 and 10-13 for storing data. In order to do this,crosspoints 14-1 through 14-6, 9-1 through 9-6 and 4-1 through 4-6 areenabled, thus allowing those memories to be accessed by the processorsfor data. This means that the memory utilization in the system ismaintained at its optimum level for both SIMD and MIMD configurations.

Imaging Personal Computer

The imaging personal computer (PC) shown in FIGS. 46-52, can beconstructed of three major elements, a camera sensing device 4600, shownin FIG. 46, an imaging processing device 4602 and a display device 4801(FIG. 48). The imaging PC is not restricted to the use of a camera 4600or a display 4803 and many forms of image input/output can be used.

Camera 4600 could be focused in front of display device 4803 of the PCand a hand 4603 can be used to input information by "signing" astypically done for deaf communication. The "signing" could be observedby the camera, and the screen could be used to display either the sign"two" or can be used to further process the information as discussedpreviously with respect to FIG. 11. The output bus from the PC couldalso contain the digital representation of the information being inputvia camera 4600, in this case the binary bits representing two. Thus,the user could utilize spreadsheets and other information obtaininginformation both from a keyboard or other traditional manner in ASCIIcode as well as from a visual or video source such as camera 4600 orvideo recorder device or any other type of video input using an imagingcode input. The video input can be recorded on tape, on disc or on anyother media and stored in the same manner as information is currentlystored for presentation to a PC.

Some of the features that an imaging PC can have are 1) acquiring imagesfrom cameras, scanners and other sensors; 2) understanding theinformation or objects, in a document; 3) extracting pertinentinformation from a document or picture; 4) navigating through a database combining images as well as textual documents; 5) providingadvanced imaging interfaces, such as gesture recognition.

The PC can be used to create instant data bases since the informationput into the system can be read and the informational content abstractedimmediately without further processing by other systems. This creates adata base that can be accessed simply by a match of particular words,none of which had been identified prior to the storage. This can beextended beyond words to geometric shapes, pictures and can be useful inmany applications. For example, a system could be designed to scan acatalog, or a newspaper, to find a particular object, such as all of thetrees or all of the red cars or all trucks over a certain size on ahighway. Conceptually then, a data base would be formed by words,objects, and shapes which the image processor would abstract and makeuseful to the user.

One use of such a PC with imaging capability is that both still andmoving pictures and video can be integrated into a system or into anydocument, simply by having the picture scanned by the PC. Theinformation then would be abstracted as discussed with respect to FIG.11, and the output made available to the imaging PC for furtherprocessing under control of the user.

One of the reasons why so much imaging capability is available under thesystem shown is that the single chip contains several processors workingin parallel together with several memories, all accessible under acrossbar switch which allows for substantially instantaneousrearrangement of the system. This gives a degree of power andflexibility not heretofore known. This then allows for a vast increasein the amount of imaging processing capability which can be utilized inconjunction with other processing capability to provide the type ofservices not known before. Some examples of this would be restoration ofphotographs and other images, or the cleaning of facsimile documents sothat extraneous material in the background is removed yielding areceived image as clear or clearer than the sending image. This entiresystem can be packaged in a relatively small package mainly because ofthe processing capability that is combined into one operational unit.Bandwidth limitations and other physical limitations such as wiringconnections, are eliminated.

An expansion of the concept would be to have the imaging PC built into asmall unit which can be mounted on a wrist and the large video displayreplaced by a small flat panel display so that the user can wave afinger over top of the display for input as shown in FIG. 46. Theimaging system, as previously discussed, would recognize the variousmovements and translate the movements into an input. This wouldeffectively remove the problems of keyboards and other mechanical inputdevices and replace them with a visual image as an input. The input inthis case could also be a display, serving a dual purpose. This thenmakes optical character recognition an even more important input toolthan as presently envisioned.

FIG. 47 shows the binary output code of two as determined from the imageof the two fingers under control of the imaging PC and the algorithms ofFIG. 11 implemented by the structure of FIGS. 1 and 2.

FIG. 48 shows a remote transmission system using the imaging PC.

FIGS. 49-52 show various implementations of an image system processor PCwith various applications. For example, FIG. 49 shows a personal desktop imaging PC which has multiple input and output devices. As shown, anobject or document for copying 4908 would be imaged or sensed withoptics 4907 and CCD 4906. This sensed information is then converted fromanalog to digital information with A/D data acquisition unit 4904 whichprovides sensed digital information for the ISP imaging system processor4900.

Controller engine 4905 provides the necessary timing signals to both CCDunit 4906 and print assembly 4909. This print assembly will providedocuments 4910. Another input or output capability would be a telephoneline shown by modem 4901 providing communication to other units. Controlconsole 4902 could consist of a keyboard, mouse or other imaging devicespreviously described. LCD or CRT display 4903 would be used forproviding information to the user. Display 4903 and ISP and memory 4900and element 4909 are connected by an image information bus, whichcontains data of images which have been processed.

FIG. 50 describes an imbedded application of the image system processor5000. In this case images are sensed again via CCD's 5004 or othersensors which collect information from the world, such as the presenceof an intruder in a security application. This information is placed ina frame buffer or VRAM 5003 which is the external memory for the imagesystem processor 5000. Alternatively, the ISP can be used as a pattern(or person) recognizer and output control info,nation fed to latch 5008.This information would be used to control a mechanism 5009, such as adoor lock or factory process or the like. Also, the output from latch5008 could be presented to output display 5010. The program orinstructions have been previously stored in an optical disc 5001 or ahard drive 5002. These devices can also be used to store incidences ofinformation such as again in a security application, the image of anintruder. The statistical accumulated record keeping 5007 maintainssystem status or occurrence of events which have occurred.

FIG. 51 depicts a handheld imaging PC. In this case the image systemprocessor 5106 accepts input from two charge couple devices 5105 whichprovide position input which is then processed to extract user suppliedgestures and control of the PC. The position and orientation of theuser's hand or pseudo pen would then be used to control the device or inconjunction with the ISP to extract meaningful messages or characters.Flat panel display 5104 provides an output information display of thishandheld PC. Optionally, an external camera 5103 would allow the user tocollect images outside of the scope of the handheld PC's memory. A hostor printer port would also be provided to allow the user to download orprint information contained in the handheld PC.

FIG. 52 describes an application of the ISP in a network configurationwith a host 5205 which provides necessary image information collectedoff-line either remotely or in some central office and then distributedto buffer 5201 which is then used by the imaging PC configuration toprovide information to the image system processor 5200. An alternativemethod of obtaining information is via scanner 5207 working inconjunction with front end processor 5206. This reduced cost version ofthe imaging PC (with respect to FIG. 49) would permit the resourcesharing by networking image collection devices. A printer port wouldalso be provided via printer interface 5203 and its connection toprinter mechanism 5204 which would allow the user to print the compounddocuments which contain the normal textual and graphic information inaddition to images or enhanced images via the image system processor.

The compact structure of the image processing system, where all of theparallel processing and memory interaction is available on a single chipcoupled with a wide flexibility of processor memory configurations andoperational modes, all chip controlled, contributes to the ability ofthe imaging PC to accept image data input as well as ASCII input and toallow the two types of data to be simultaneously utilized.

Ones Counting Circuit

FIG. 53 shows an imaging system 5310 operable to process image datausing combinations of various processing algorithms. An imaging device5312, such as a video camera, a still image camera, a bar code readerand the like, is used to capture images and provides them to an imagedata memory 5314. The captured images are stored in image data memory5314 until they are accessed by an image processor 5316 addressed by anaddress generator 5318. Image processor 5316, such as the processorshown in FIGS. 1 and 2, performs signal processing functions includingstatistical processes on the image data, such as histograms. A onescounting circuit 5320 is provided to generate a count of the number of"ones" in the image data. Information, such as the number of "ones"along a projection line in the image data, is used to provide astatistical analysis of the image data, which may be used for patternrecognition. The histogram of the image data may be compared topredetermined image patterns to recognize a pattern match. An outputdevice 5322 is coupled to image processor 5316 and is available fordisplaying any output of imaging system 5310. The output device 5322 maybe a monitor or a hard copy generating device.

It should be understood that the overview of the imaging system 5310described above provides an example of an environment in which thepresent invention may advantageously operate, and the description abovein no way limits the applicability of ones counting circuit 5320.

Referring to FIG. 54, a logic gate level implementation of a onescounting circuit 5320 is shown. The ones counting circuit 5320 consistsof a matrix 5424 having M number of rows and N number of columns ofcount cells 5426a through 5426l, where M is equal to three and N isequal to four in the embodiment shown in FIG. 54. For an input binarystring of X_(n) number of bits, M may be determined by:

    M=log.sub.2 (X.sub.n +1)

rounded up to the nearest integer, and N may be determined by:

    N=X.sub.n.

The matrix 5424 receives a binary string denoted by X, and produces abinary number denoted by Y, indicative of the number of "ones" in thebinary string. Another output, denoted by Z, is used in a minimized onescounting circuit matrix, to be discussed in detail below.

Each count cell 5426a through 5426l in matrix 5424 includes an AND gate5428 and an XOR gate (exclusive-OR) 5430. For example, count cell 5426aincludes an AND gate 5428a coupled to an XOR gate 5430a. An AND gate,such as AND gate 5428a, performs an AND function in which the output isequal to a logic level "one" if, and only if, all of the inputs are oflogic level "one." AND gate 5428a includes inputs 5432a and 5434a, andan output 5436a. Therefore, output 5436a becomes a "one" if the logiclevel on inputs 5432a and 5434a are both "ones," and output 5436a is a"zero" if one of the inputs is a "zero."

An XOR gate generates a logic level "one" at an output only if an oddnumber of "ones" are present at its input. For example, XOR gate 5430awill produce a "one" at output 5438a if a "one" is present at only oneof its inputs 5440a and 5442a.

In count cell 5426a, like all other count cells in matrix 5424, AND gate5428a is coupled to XOR gate 5430a. Input 5432a of AND gate 5428a isconnected to input 5440a of XOR gate 5430a. Input 5434a of AND gate5428a is connected to input 5442a of XOR gate 5430a. Thus, arranged inthis manner, AND gate 5428a receives the same inputs as XOR gate 5430a.

Count cells 5426a through 5426l are arranged in rows and columns inmatrix 5424. The interconnections of count cells 5426a, 5426b and 5426ewill be used to illustrate the interconnections of the whole matrix5424. As shown in FIG. 54, count cell 5426a is arranged to be left ofcount cell 5426b and above count cell 5426e. Count cell 5426a isconnected to count cell 5426b, where output 5438 of XOR gate 5430 ofcount cell 5426b is connected to inputs 5432a and 5440a of count cell5426a. Count cell 5426a is connected to count cell 5426e, where output5436 of AND gate 5428 of count cell 5426e is connected to both input5434a of AND gate 5428a and also input 5442a of XOR 5430a gate of countcell 5426a. The interconnections Just described may be expanded to thewhole matrix by using the connection between count cells 5426a and 5426efor inter-row connections and the connection between count cells 5426aand 5426b for inter-column connections. It is appropriate to note thatmatrix 5424 may be implemented with the rows as the columns and viceversa, and the matrix itself transposed without departing from theteachings of the present invention.

In order to further describe the structure of matrix 5424, the followingconvention will be used when referring to the rows and columns: rowshave row numbers zero through (M-1), and columns have column numberszero through (N-1), where the bottom most row is row zero and the rightmost column is column zero. In the example shown in FIG. 54, M is threeand N is four. Furthermore, references may be made to a count cell at aposition (x,y). The coordinates x and y indicate the column number androw number, respectively, of a count cell. For example, count cell 5426ais at position (3,2).

Accordingly, matrix 5424 comprises interconnected count cells 5426athrough 5426l arranged in rows and columns where row zero receives thebinary string X, row one receives the AND gate outputs of row zero, androw two produces output Z. Column-wise, column zero receives "zeros"from any source to begin the propagation, column one receives the XORgate output of row zero, column two receives the XOR gate output of rowone, and column three produces output Y indicative of the number of"ones" in binary string X. The logic level "zero" received by columnzero may be produced by hardwiring the inputs to ground.

For the purpose of illustration, a binary string 1101 (X₃ =1, X₂ =1, X₁=0, X₀ =1) is received by row zero of matrix 5424. AND gate 5428 ofcount cell 5426l produces a "zero" at its output, and XOR gate 5430 ofcount cell 5426l produces a "one" at its output. The logic level "one"from XOR gate 5430 of count cell 5426l is propagated down row zero, andthe outputs of the XOR gates of each cell toggles each time there is a"one" in the corresponding X input. Therefore, the output of XOR gate5430 of count cell 5426k remains at logic level "one," the output of XORgate 5430 of count cell 5426j toggles to a "zero," and the output of XORgate 5430 of count cell 5426i toggles again to a "one."This produces a"one" at the output of row zero, which makes Y₀ equal to "one."

In row one, the XOR gates toggle their outputs in a similar fashion. Theoutput of XOR gate 5430 count cell 5426h is a "zero," having received a"zero" from AND gate 5428 of count cell 5426l. The output of XOR gate5430 of count cell 5426g remains at logic level "zero," having received"zeros" from both XOR gate 5430 of count cell 5426h and AND gate 5428 ofcount cell 5426k. Subsequently, the output of XOR gate 5430 of countcell 5426f toggles to a "one," having received a "zero" from XOR gate5430 of count cell 5426g and a "one" from AND gate 5428 of count cell5426j. The output of XOR gate 5430 of count cell 5426e is a "one",having received a "one" from XOR gate 5430 of count cell 5426f and a"zero" from AND gate 5430 of count cell 5426i. As a result, a "one" isproduced at the output of row one, which makes Y₁ equal to "one."

In row two, the output of XOR gate 5430 of count cell 5426d is a "zero,"having received the hardwired zero and another "zero" fromAND gate 5428of count cell 5426h. The output of XOR gate 5430 of count cell 5426cremains at logic level "zero," having received "zeros" from both XORgate 5430 of count cell 5426d and AND gate 5428 of count cell 5426g.Subsequently, the outputs of XOR gates 5430 of both count cells 5426aand 5426b also produce "zeros," which produce a "zero" at the output ofrow two, making Y₂ equal to "zero." Therefore, for the example inputbinary string X=1101, the output is the binary number Y=011, which isthree. Indeed, there are exactly three "ones" in the example binarystring input X=1101.

It can be appreciated that the ones counting circuit 5320 is anasynchronous circuit, which receives inputs and generates outputswithout requiring clock signals. Thus, in matrix 5424, an output isavailable as soon as the inputs are received and the signals arepropagated through the matrix. The longest propagation time through thematrix would be the time it takes for the signals to propagate throughthe longest path which includes count cells 5426l, 5426h, 5426d, 5426c,5426b, and 5426a.

Matrix 5424 shown in FIG. 54 is rectangular and comprises identicalcount cells 5426. These characteristics make the ones counting circuitcompact and easily laid out for semiconductor mask production. However,matrix 5424 may be minimized by using fewer count cells and/or fewergates.

Referring to FIG. 55, a minimized ones counting circuit matrix 5544 fora four bit binary string input is shown. Matrix 5544 includesinterconnected count cells 5546a through 5546e. For a minimized matrix,the number of rows M, and the number of count cells in each row N, aredetermined as follows:

    M=log.sub.2 X.sub.n

rounded up to the nearest integer, and for each row

    N=X.sub.n -2.sup.r,

where X_(n) is the number of bits in the input binary string X, and r isthe row number ranging from zero to (M-1). In the example shown in FIG.55, the number of bits X_(n) of the input binary string X is four. Usingthe above formulas, the number of rows, M, is equal to two. To calculatefor N for the first row, r is equal to zero, which makes N equal tothree. For the second row, r is equal to one, which makes N equal totwo. Thus, a minimized matrix of three count cells in the first row andtwo count cells in the second row, totaling five count cells, cancompute the number of "ones" in a four bit binary string, as comparedwith the twelve count cells in the full matrix 5424 (FIG. 54).

Each count cell 5546a through 5546e comprises an AND gate 5548 coupledto an XOR gate 5550, identical to the count cells of the full matrix5424 shown in FIG. 54. The binary input string X is received by theinputs to count cells 5546c through 5546e; the output binary number Y isproduced at the outputs of count cells 5546a and 5546c.

In the example shown in FIG. 55, X₃ is received by the inputs 5552 to.AND gate 5548 and XOR gate 5550 of count cell 5546c; X₂ is received bythe inputs 5554 to AND gate 5548 and XOR gate 5550 of count cell 5546d.X₁ is received by the inputs 5556 to AND gate 5548 and XOR gate 5550 ofcount cell 5546e; X₀ is received by the other inputs 5558 to AND gate5548 and XOR gate 5550 of count cell 5546e.

The most significant bit of the binary number output Y, Y₂, is producedat output 5560 of AND gate 5548 of count cell 5546a. Y₁ is produced atoutput 5562 of XOR gate 5550 of count cell 5546a. The least significantbit Y₀ is produced at output 5564 of XOR gate 5550 of count cell 5546c.

Because the minimized matrix 5544 is not rectangular, theinterconnections between the count cells are modified. In particular, ifa count cell at position (x,y) is not present as compared with the fullmatrix, the count cell in the row immediately "below" it is connected tothe input of the XOR gate of the count cell (x+1,y) immediately to theleft of the missing cell. If more than one count cell is absent, forexample, count cells at positions (x,y) and (x+1,y), then only theoutput of the AND gate of the count cell at position (x+1,y-1) need tobe connected to the input of the XOR gate of the count cell at position(x+2,y). In the embodiment shown in FIG. 55, the count cells atpositions (0,1) and (1,1) are absent, so the output of AND gate 5548 ofthe count cell 5546e at position (1,0) is connected to the inputs of ANDgate 5548 and XOR gate 5550 of count cell 5546b at position (2,1).Further, the count cell at position (0,0) is also absent as comparedwith the full matrix implementation. The input X₀, then, is directlyconnected to inputs 5558 of AND gate 5548 and XOR gate 5550,respectively, of count cell 5546e at position (1,0). The count cell atposition (3,2) is also absent, so the output Y₂ is directly provided bythe output 5560 of AND gate 5548 of count cell 5546a at position (3,1).

Using the prior example X=1101, where X₃ =1, X₂ =1, X₁ =0, and X₀ =1,the output of AND gate 5548 of count cell 5546e is a "zero," and theoutput of XOR gate 5550 of the same count cell 5546e is a "one." Thelogic level "one" from XOR gate 5550 of count cell 5546a is propagateddown row zero and the outputs of XOR gates of each cell toggle each timethere is a "one" in the corresponding X input. Therefore, the output ofXOR gate 5550 of count cell 5546d toggles to a "zero," and the output ofXOR gate 5550 of count cell 5546c toggles again to a "one." Thisproduces a "one" at the output of row zero, which makes Y₀ equal to"one."

In the second row, the output Z of AND gate 5548 of count cell 5546b isa "zero," having received a "zero" from AND gate 5548 of count cell5546e. XOR gate 5550 of count cell 5546b outputs a "one," havingreceived a "zero" from count cell 5546e and a "one" from count cell5546d. XOR gate 5550 of count cell 5546a outputs a "one," havingreceived a "zero" from count cell 5546c and a "one" from count cell5546b. This produces a "one" at the output of row one, making Y₁ equalto "one." In addition, Y₂, which is the output of AND gate 5548 of countcell 5546a, is a "zero." Therefore, the output binary number is equal toY=011, indicating that there are three "ones" in the input binary stringX=1101.

Matrix 5544 may be further minimized by eliminating some logic gates,such as AND gate 5548 of count cell 5546b, shown in broken outline.Since the output Z of AND gate 5548 is not required to assemble outputbinary number Y, AND gate 5548 can be eliminated. Therefore, in aminimized matrix, AND gates of count cells immediately adjacent toabsent count cells in the same row may be removed to further reduce thesize of the ones counting circuit.

It can be appreciated that the present invention is not limited in scopeto the circuit implementation described and shown herein. In particular,alternative embodiments may include circuit implementations derivablefrom the present embodiment by Boolean logic as known in the art. Forexample, an AND gate such as AND gate 5548 may be equally implemented bya NAND gate coupled to an inverter. Furthermore, by De Morgan's theoremas known in the art, an AND function may be implemented by an OR gatewith an inverter coupled to its output and with the input signals to theOR gate inverted. Such alternate circuits derivable from the presentembodiment are within the scope of the invention.

Referring now to FIG. 56, an example application in characterrecognition of the present invention is shown. A matrix of pixels 5666consists of "zeros" and "ones" forming a letter "F." The pixels 5666 maybe gathered by an aforementioned imaging device and stored in an imagedata memory. The matrix of pixels 5666 is processed row-wise andcolumn-wise to generate row counts 5668 and column counts 5670 of thenumber of "ones" present in each row and column, respectively. The rowcounts 5668 are generated by providing each row of the pixel matrix 5666as binary string input X to the ones counting circuit. Thus, a count ofthe number of "ones" of each row is generated. In the example shown inFIG. 56, the capital letter "F" has no "one" pixels in the first tworows. In row three, there are four "ones" forming the first horizontalline in the letter. In row four, there is only one "one". Row five hasthree "ones" which form the second horizontal line in the letter "F." Ineach of rows six and seven, there is one "one".

Similarly, column counts 5670 are generated by providing each column ofthe pixel matrix 5666 to the input of the ones counting circuit. Columnsone and two contain no "ones." In column three, there are five "ones"forming the vertical line in the letter "F." In column four, there aretwo; in column five, there are also two; in column six, there is one;and in columns seven and eight, there are none.

Therefore, the row counts and column counts of all characters and anyimage pattern may be generated and stored as histograms in a patternrecognition system, so that they may be used as a standard forcomparison against new character image samples.

While the preferred embodiment of the present invention counts thenumber of "ones" in an input binary string, it is conceivable toimplement a "zero" counting circuit operable to count the number of"zeros" in a binary string in an alternate embodiment by addinginverters at the input of the ones counting circuit matrix. Such a"zero" counting circuit is an alternate embodiment and is within theteachings of the present invention.

Although the present invention has been described in detail, it shouldbe understood that various changes, substitutions and alterations can bemade hereto without departing from the spirit and scope of the inventionas defined by the appended claims.

PROCESSOR DETAILS

The following discussion pertains to the master processor, the parallelprocessors, and the transfer processor as detailed in FIGS. 29-45. Whilenot necessary for an understanding of the operation of the inventionclaimed, this discussion may be helpful to give a specific embodiment ofmany such embodiments. The precise system used will depend upon thesystem requirements and can, in fact, vary substantially from thefollowing discussion.

Parallel Processor

Master Processor

Turning now to FIG. 29, we can look at workings of master processor 12which serve to control the operation of the entire image systemprocessor including controlling the synchronization and otherinformation flowing between the various parallel processors. Masterprocessor 12 executes instructions which can be 32 bit words havingopcodes controlled by opcode circuit 2911 and register file 2901.Program counter 2903 operates under the control of control logic 2904 tocontrol the loading of instructions from bus 172 into opcode register2911. Control logic 2904 then decodes the instruction and controls theoperation on master processor 12 based on the information presented.

In addition to integer execution unit (ALU) 2902, there is a floatingpoint execution unit comprised of two parts. Part one is a floatingpoint multiplier comprised of multiplier 2905, normalized circuit 2906and exponent adder 2907. Part two is a floating point adder comprised ofprenormalizer 2908 and arithmetic unit 2909 and postnormalizing shifter2910.

Program counter register 2903 is used to provide the address outputalong bus 171 when it is required to read 32 bit instructions. Acting inaccordance with the instructions decoded from opcode register 2911,integer execution unit 2902 can provide addresses which are output overbus 171 to control the reading of data from a data cache external to themaster processor. Data is returned over the data part of bus 171 andstored in register file 2901.

The Instruction bus 172 and data bus 171 each consist of an address partand a data part. For instruction bus 172, the address part comes fromthe program counter 2903 and the data part is returned to opcoderegister 2911. For data bus 171, the address part comes from the outputof the integer ALU 2902 and the data either comes from register file2901 if it is a write cycle or is returned to register file 2901 if itis a read cycle.

The manner in which the various elements of master processor 12 interactwith each other are well-known in the art. One example of the workingsof a graphics processor is shown in copending U.S. patent application ofKarl Guttag, David Gulley, and Jerry Van Aken, entitled "GraphicsProcessor Having a Floating Point Coprocessor", Ser. No. 387,472, filedJul. 28, 1989, which application is hereby incorporated by referenceherein.

Parallel Processor Operation

The four processors 100-103 shown in FIGS. 1 and 2 (abbreviated PPherein) perform most of the system's operations. The PP's each have ahigh degree of parallelism enabling them to perform the equivalent ofmany reduced instruction set computer (RISC)-like operations per cycle.Together they provide a formidable data processing capability,particularly for image and graphics processing.

Each PP can perform three accesses per cycle, through the crossbarswitch to the memory, one for instructions and two for data. A multiplyand an ALU operation can also be performed by each PP every cycle, aswell as generating addresses for the next two data transfers. Efficientloop logic allows a zero cycle overhead for three nested loops. Speciallogic is included for handling logical ones, and the ALU is splittablefor operating on packed pixels.

As discussed previously, to allow flexibility of use, the PPs can beconfigured to execute from the same instruction stream (SingleInstruction Multiple Data (SIMD) mode) or from independent instructionstreams (Multiple Instruction Multiple Data (MIMD) mode). MIMD modeprovides the capability of running the PPs together in lock-stepallotting for efficient synchronized data transfer between processors.

In order to relieve the programmer of the worries of accidentalsimultaneous access attempts of the same memory, contentionprioritization logic is included in the crossbar, and retry logic isincluded in the PPs.

All the PPs 100-103 are logically identical in design, but there are twodifferences in their connections within the system. Firstly, each PPwill be supplied with a unique hardwired two-bit identification numberthat allows a program to generate PP specific information such asaddresses. The other difference is that when configured as SIMD, one PP100 will act as the "master" SIMD machine and will perform theinstruction fetches on behalf of all the PPs. The other PPs 101-103 willact as "slave" machines simply executing the provided instructionstream.

Internal Interfaces

As shown in FIG. 30, each PP 100-103 connects to the rest of the systemvia a number of interfaces, such as instruction port 3004, global port3005 and local port 3006, as well as an interprocessor communicationlink 40.

Instruction port 3004 is connected to its own instruction RAM 10-1(10-5, 10-9 or 10-14) in the MIMD mode or connected to the other PP'sinstruction buses in the SIMD mode. Only the "master" SIMD PP 100 willoutput addresses onto its instruction bus when configured as SIMD.Instruction port 3004 is also used to communicate cachemiss informationto transfer processor 11.

Global port 3005 is attached to the PP's own dedicated bus that runs thelength of the crossbar. Via this bus the PP can reach any of thecrossbar'd RAMs 10. Data transfer size is typically 8, 16 or 32 bits. Acontention detect signal 3210 (FIG. 32) associated with this port isdriven by the crossbar logic, indicating when a retry must be performed.

Local port 3006 is similar in function to global port 3005, but it mayonly access the four crossbar'd RAMs physically opposite each PP. InSIMD mode however it is possible to specify a "common" read with thefour local PP buses 6 series connected, allowing all (or some subset of)PPs to be supplied with the same data (from one RAM 10-0, 10-2, 10-3 or10-4). In this situation only the "master" SIMD PP 100 will supply theaddress of the data.

In MIMD configuration, there is the capability to execute PP programs inlock-step. The programmer indicates these sections of code by boundingthem with LCK and ULCK instructions. Four signals 3020, one output byeach PP, are routed between the PPs indicating when each is in thissection of code. By testing these signals the PPs can execute codesynchronously.

As mentioned above, global ports 3005 and local ports 3006 have signals3210 and 3211 (FIG. 32) to know when contention has occurred and a retryis required. When configured in SIMD mode, it is essential that all PPspause instruction execution until all contentions have been resolved.There is thus a signal 3007 running between all PPs which is activatedwhen any PP detects contention. The next instruction is only loaded bythe PPs when this signal becomes inactive. This signal is also activatedwhen the "master" SIMD PP 100 detects a cache-miss. In MIMDconfiguration signal 3007 is ignored.

In SIMD configuration stack coherency between the PPs must bemaintained. When performing conditional calls, a signal 3008 is requiredtherefore from the "master" SIMD PP 100 to the "slave" SIMD PPs 101-103that indicates that the condition was true and that the return addressshould be pushed by the "slave" PPs 101-103.

Another time when SIMD stack coherency must be maintained is wheninterrupts occur. In order to achieve this there is a signal 3009 whichis activated by the "master" SIMD PP 100 which is observed by the"slave" PPs 101-103. All PPs 100-103 will execute the interruptpseudo-instruction sequence when this signal is active.

Another SIMD interrupt-related signal 3010 indicates to the "master" PP100 that a "slave" PP 101-103 has an enabled interrupt pending. Thisallows "slave" PPs 101-103 to indicate that something has gone wrongwith a SIMD task, since "slave" PPs 101-103 shouldn't normally expect tobe interrupted.

A number of interrupt signals 3011 are supplied to each PP. These allowa PP to be interrupted by any other PP for message-passing. Masterprocessor 12 can similarly interrupt a PP for message-passing. Themaster processor can also interrupt each PP in order to issue them withnew tasks. In SIMD the interrupt logic in the "slave" PPs 101-103 mustremain active for stack consistency and interrupts are handled slightlydifferently. This is discussed later.

The PP indicates with a signal 3012 to the transfer processor when apacket request is required. The transfer processor indicates when apacket request has been serviced with another signal 3013. In SIMDconfiguration only the "master" PP 100 will output packet requests tothe Transfer Processor.

Internal Structure

The bus structure of a PP is shown in FIG. 30. There are three mainunits within the PP. These are the program flow control unit 3002, theaddress unit 3001 and the data unit 3000. Each of these will now bediscussed.

Program flow control (PFC) unit 3002 shown in FIG. 31 contains the logicassociated with the program counter 3100, i.e., the instruction cachecontrol 3101, the loop control 3102, the branch/call logic (RET) 3103and the PP synchronization logic 3104. This logic controls the fetchingof opcodes from the PP's instruction RAM 10-1, 10-5, 10-9 or 10-14. Whena cache-miss occurs, it also communicates the segment address and thesub-segment number to the transfer processor so that the code can befetched.

Instruction pipeline 3105 is in the PFC Unit 3002. The PFC unit 3002will therefore generate the signals 3112 necessary to control theaddress unit 3001 and data unit 3000. The immediate data specified bycertain opcodes are also extracted from the instruction pipeline androuted to the data unit as required.

Interrupt enable 3107, interrupt flags 3106 and interrupt vector addressgeneration logic is also in the PFC unit 3002. This prioritizes theactive interrupts and injects a sequence of pseudo instructions into thepipeline 3105 to read the vector, save the program counter 3100 and thestatus register 3108, and branch to the interrupt routine.

Packet request handshake signals 3012 and 3013 will also connect to thePFC unit 3002.

The PFC unit is the part of the PP whose behavior differs between PPswhen configured in SIMD mode. The "master" SIMD PP 100 will behavemore-or-less normally, but the "slave" PPs 101-103 will disable theircache logic 3018 and flush the present flags 3109. Their loop logic3102, synchronization logic 3104 and packet request signals 3012 and3013 are also disabled. The interrupt logic behavior is modified so thatall PPs can behave identically.

Address unit 3001 shown in FIG. 32 contains two identical subunits 3200and 3201 each capable of generating a 16-bit byte address of a datalocation in the crossbar'd RAM 10. Within each subunit are four addressregisters 3202/3222, four index registers 3203/3223, four qualifierregisters 3204/3224, a modulo register 3205/3225 and an ALU 3206/3226.When two parallel data accesses are specified in the opcode, subunit3200 outputs the address through global port 3005 and the other subunit(3201) through the local port 3006. When only one access is specified,then this address can come from either subunit 3200 or 3201, unless asingle common SIMD read is specified, in which case it is required tocome from the "local" subunit 3201.

Address unit 3001 also supports retries if contention is detected oneither, or both, global 3005 and local buses 3006.

Addressing modes are pre- and post-indexing, by a short immediate or anindex register, with or without address register modify. The address(es)can be further qualified to be in data or I/O space, with or withoutpower-of-2 modulo, with or without bit-reversed addressing, and a commonSIMD read.

Address unit 3001 also controls the aligner/extractors 3003 (FIG. 30) onglobal and local ports 3005 or 3006. These are essentially bytemultiplexers that allow the transfer of bytes, half-words or words overthe crossbar to/from the RAMs 10. They also allow non-aligned (but bytealigned) half-words or words to be loaded or stored. Sign extension ofloads is also provided if required.

Data unit 3000 (shown in FIG. 33) contains 8 multiport data registers3300, a full 32-bit barrel shifter 3301, a 32-bit ALU 3302, left-most-1right-most-1 and number-of-is logic 3303, divide iteration logic and a16×16 single-cycle multiplier 3304. Various multiplexers 3305-3309 arealso included for routing data.

Special instructions are included to allow multiple pixel arithmeticoperations. The ALU 3302 is splittable into 2 or 4 equal pieces uponwhich adds, subtracts and compares can be performed. These operationscan be followed with a merge operation that allows saturation, min, maxand transparency to be performed. This same logic also facilitates colorexpansion, color compression and masking operations.

All data unit instructions execute in a single cycle and areregister-to-register operations. They all allow one or two separatelycoded loads or stores from/to crossbar'd memory 10 to be performed inparallel with the data unit operation. If an immediate is specified thenthis replaces the parallel moves in the opcode. Operations can also beperformed on registers other than the 8 data registers 3300, but, aswith immediates, the parallel moves cannot be specified in this case.

Bus Structure

As can be seen from FIG. 30, there are four buses 3014-3017 which runthe length of the PP data path. These are used for all the datamovement, and are a compromise between the number of buses (and read andwrite ports of registers) and the allowed sources and destinations fordata unit operations.

The left-most bus 3014 carries the 16-bit immediates (after left/rightjustification and sign-extension) to data unit 3000. This is also usedto load immediates by passing them through ALU 3302 then out onto theregister write bus 3016.

The next bus from the left 3015 carries any address unit 3001 or PFCunit 3002 register source to the data unit 3000. It is also used tocarry the source data of stores going to memory 10 on global port 3005.It also carries the source of a register-to-register move occurring inparallel with an ALU operation.

The next bus 3016 is used by loads from memory 10 on global port 3005 toany register, and by the results of a data unit operation to be writtento any register. This bus carries a latch 3018 which is used temporarilyfor holding load data when the pipeline pauses through contention,synchronization or cache-misses.

The right-most bus 3017 is used entirely by the Local port 3006 forloads and stores of data unit registers 3300 from/to memory 10. This buscannot access any registers other than the data unit's registers 3300.This bus carries a latch 3019 which is used temporarily for holding loaddata when the pipeline pauses through contention, synchronization orcache-misses.

Pipeline Overview

The PPs' pipelines have three stages called fetch, address and execute.The behavior of each pipeline stage is summarized below:

FETCH: The address contained in program counter 3100 is compared withthe segment registers 3110 and present flags 3109 and the instructionfetched if present. PC 3100 is post-incremented or reloaded from theloop start address 3111. If MIMD synchronization is active, then thisallows/inhibits the instruction fetch.

ADDRESS: If the instruction calls for one or two memory accesses, thenthe address unit 3001 will generate the required address(es) during thisstage. The five most-significant bits of the address(es) are supplied tocrossbar 20 for contention detection/prioritization.

EXECUTING: All register-to-register data unit 3000 operations and anyother data movements occur during this stage. The remaining 11 bits ofcrossbar address(es) are output to the RAMs 10 and the data transfer(s)performed. If contention is detected, then this stage is repeated untilit is resolved. If the PC 3100 is specified as a destination (i.e., abranch, call or return) then the PC 3100 is written to during thisstage, thus creating a delay slot of two instructions.

MEMORY

Each PP accesses three separate memory spaces, 64M bytes of off-chipword-aligned code space. (From on-chip cache).

64K bytes of on-chip crossbar'd memory 10. This is referred to as dataspace.

64K bytes of on-chip I/O space in which resides the Parameter RAMs, themessage registers and the semaphore flags.

The I/O spaces for each PP 100-103 are isolated from each other so thatcode need not calculate addresses unique to each PP when accessing I/Ospace. Thus each PP sees its own parameter RAM at the same logicaladdress. The same applies for the message registers and semaphore flags.The master processor, however, can uniquely address each PP's I/O space.

The 64K bytes of memory is for one embodiment only and any expansion ormodification can be made thereto.

Program Flow Control Unit

The logic within program flow control unit 3002, (FIG. 31), workspredominantly during the fetch pipeline stage, affecting the loading ofthe instruction pipeline. However since the instruction pipeline isresident in the PFC unit 3002, it must also issue signals 3112 to theaddress 3001 and data units 3000 during the address and execute pipelinestages. It also receives signals from address unit 3001 that indicatewhen contention has occurred, thus pausing the pipeline.

Cache Control

The 512-instruction cache has four segments, each with foursub-segments. Each sub-segment therefore contains 32 instructions. Thereis one present flag 3109 for each sub-segment. Since program counter3100 is 24 bits, the segment registers 3110 are each 17 bits. Theinstruction opcodes are 32-bits wide.

The 9-bit word address used to access the instruction RAM is derivedfrom the least-significant 7 bits of program counter 3100 and two bitsfrom the segment address compare logic 3113. This compare logic mustwork quickly so as to avoid significantly delaying the RAM access.

If the most-significant 17 bits of program counter 3100 are not matchedagainst one of the segment address registers 3110, then a segment-misshas occurred. The least recently used segment is chosen to be trashed bylogic 3114, and its sub-segment present flags 3109 are cleared. If,however, the most-significant 17 bits of the program counter 3100 arematched against one of the segment address registers 3110 but thecorresponding sub-segment flag 3109 is not set, then a sub-segment misshas occurred.

If either type of cache-miss occurs, the pipeline is paused, and acache-miss signal 3115 sent to transfer processor 11. When a cache-missacknowledge signal is supplied by the TP 11, the most-significant 17bits of the PC 3100, and the 4 bits representing the sub-segment to befilled are output onto the TP's bus. (This requires a crossbarconnection 0-3, 0-8, 0-13 or 0-18 between the PP's instruction bus,horizontal 7, and the TP's bus, horizontal 0). The TP's acknowledgesignal 3115 is then deactivated. When the sub-segment has been filled byTP 11, a cachefilled signal 3115 is sent to the PP which causes theappropriate sub-segment present flag 3109 to be set, deactivates thePP's cache-miss signal 3115, and instruction execution recommences.

If the PP is interrupted at any time while waiting for a cache-missrequest to be serviced, the cache miss service is aborted. This preventsneedless fetches of unwanted code.

In SIMD configuration the present flags 3109 of the "slave" PP's 101-103will be held cleared and the cache logic 3101 ignored. The "slave" PP's101-103 will load instructions (supplied by the "master" PP 100) intotheir pipeline whenever the SIMD pause signal 3007 is inactive. The"master" PP's cache 3101 behaves normally, but it too will pause itspipeline whenever the SIMD pause signal 3007 is active. (Such acondition will occur if one of the "slave" PPs 101-103 detectscontention). In MIMD configuration the SIMD pause signal 3007 is ignoredby all processors.

The ability to flush the PPs' caches 3101 can be provided by a memorymapped register accessible by the master processor 12. This functionwill clear all the present flags in the PP(s) selected.

Loop Control

Three nested loops that execute with zero cycle overhead are included toallow operations such as convolution to be coded with the appropriateaddress sequence without speed penalty, rather than using dedicatedlogic in the address unit 3001.

There is a multiplicity of registers to support this feature, namely,three 16-bit loop end values 3116-3118, three 16-bit loop counts3119-3121, three 16-bit loop reload values 3122-3124 and one 24-bit loopstart value 3111. It is a restriction that the three loops have a commonstart address. This restriction can be removed simply by adding two more24-bit loop start address registers.

The number of instructions required to load the loop registers 3111 and3116-3124 is reduced by simultaneously loading loop counter registers3119-3121 whenever the associated loop reload registers 3122-3124 arewritten. This saves up to three instructions. When restoring saved loopregisters, e.g., after a context switch, the loop reload registers3122-3124 must therefore be restored before the loop counter registers3119-3121.

Within status register 3108, FIG. 34, are two bits (25) and (24) thatindicate how many loops are required to be activated. These are calledthe maximum looping depth (MLD) bits. There are also two bits (23) and(22), implemented as a two bit decrementer, that indicate the currentdepth of looping. These are called the current loop depth (CLD) bits.These indicate which loop end address register 3116-3118 should becompared with the PC 3100. These CLD bits will be cleared to zero (noloops active) by reset, and by interrupts once the SR 3108 has beenpushed. Loops are numbered 1 to 3 with 1 being the outer-most loop. Theuser must set the MLD and CLD bits to the desired values in order toactivate the loop logic. When all loops have been completed the CLD bitswill be zero.

Since the CLD bits are automatically decremented by the loop logicduring the fetch pipeline stage, the status register 3108 should not bewritten to during the last two instructions within a loop.

Once the loop logic 3102 has been activated (by a nonzero value in theCLD bits) the 16-bit loop end address register (one of 3116-3118)indicated by the CLD bits is compared during each instruction fetch withthe 16 least-significant bits of the unincremented PC 3100. If they areequal and the associated loop counter (one of 3119-3121) is not 1, thenthe loop start address register 3111 contents are loaded in the PC 3100,the loop counter (one of 3119-3121) is decremented and the MLD bits arecopied into the CLD bits.

If, however, the unincremented PC 3100 and loop end address register(one of 3116-3118) are equal and the relevant loop counter (one of3119-3121) is 1, then the CLD bits are decremented by 1, the relevantloop counter (one of 3119-3121) is reloaded from its associated loopreload register (one of 3122-3124), and the PC 3100 increments to thenext instruction.

Since the loop end address registers 3116-3118 are only 16-bits, thismeans that loops cannot be more than 64K instructions long. Care shouldalso be taken if branching or calling out of loops as the 16-bit valueof the currently in-use loop end address register (one of 3116-3118) maybe encountered accidentally. Users should set the CLD bits to zerobefore attempting this to be certain of not having a problem. Loop endaddress compare is disabled during the two delay slot instructions of abranch or call in order to help returns from interrupts.

Since the loop logic operates during the fetch pipeline stage it ispossible to combine looping with MIMD synchronization if desired.Interrupting loops is similarly not a problem. Looping in SIMD iscontrolled by the "master" 100 SIMD PP's loop logic. The "slave" PPs'101-103 loop logic can still operate since their program counters 3100are ignored.

There are various permutations on the above arrangement which can beused. A slightly more user friendly method is to have three 24-bit loopend registers with comparators, and three 24-bit loop start addressregisters. Each loop would be enabled by a single bit in the statusregister.

When executing MIMD programs that are working on a common task, there isusually the need to communicate between processors. The system supportsboth message-passing and semaphores for "loose" communication, but whenexecuting tightly-coupled programs, the need to exchange information ona cycle-by-cycle basis is required. This is where synchronized executionis of benefit.

Within each PP's SYNC/PP# 3104, register there are four bits onerelating to each PP. The other PP(s) to which a particular PP willsynchronize is indicated by writing a one to the bits corresponding tothose PP(s). The other PP(s) which are expecting to be synchronized willsimilarly have set the appropriate bits in their SYNC/PP# 3104register(s).

Code that is desired to be executed in synchronization is indicated bybounding it with LCK (Lock) and ULCK (Unlock) instructions. Theinstructions following the LCK, and those up to and including the ULCK,will be executed in lock-step with the other PP(s). There must thereforebe the same number of instructions between the LCK and ULCK instructionsin each synchronized PP.

The knowledge that synchronized code is being executed is recorded bythe "S" (synchronized) bit (26) in status register 3108. This bit is notset or reset until the master phase of the address pipeline stage of theLCK or ULCK instructions respectively, but the effect of the LCK or ULCKinstruction affects the fetch of the next instruction during the slavephase. This bit (26) is cleared by reset and by interrupts, once thestatus register 3108 has been pushed.

When a PP encounters a LCK instruction (decoded during the slave phaseof the address pipeline stage) it will output a signal 40 to the otherPPs 100-103 saying that it is executing a piece of synchronized code. Itwill then AND the incoming sync signals from the other PPs with which itis desiring to be synchronized, and only when all those processors areoutputting sync signals 40 will the next instruction be fetched into thepipeline. This will occur coincidentally in all the synchronized PPsbecause they too will not proceed until the same set of matching syncsignals are active. It is therefore possible to have two differentsynchronized MIMD tasks running concurrently, because each will ignorethe sync signals of the other.

Since it is the instruction fetch that is synchronized, it is possibleto interrupt synchronized code. This will immediately cause the PP'ssync signals 40 to become inactive. Cache-misses and contention willhave a similar effect, keeping the machines in-step. In the case ofcontention, however, the instruction following the one experiencingcontention will have already been fetched into the pipeline before thepipeline pauses.

It is possible to put IDLE instructions into synchronized code, thusholding the operation of all the synchronized PPs until a particular PPhas been interrupted and returned from its interrupt routine.

Since it is necessary to be able to interrupt synchronized code, anyinstruction that specifies the PC 3100 as a destination will immediatelydisable the effect of the S bit (26) of status register 3108 (with thesame timing as the ULCK instruction), but the S bit (26) will remainset. Once the two delay slot instructions have completed, the effect ofthe S bit (26) is re-enabled. This mechanism prevents problems withbeing unable to interrupt synchronized delay slot instructions. The synclogic 3104 therefore treats branches, calls and returns (implemented asa PC 3100 load followed by two delay slot instructions) as a singleinstruction. The sync signals 40 will be driven inactive during the twodelay slot instructions and they will be fetched without looking at thesync signals 40. If a LCK instruction is put in a delay slot, it willtake effect after the delay slot instructions have been executed.Synchronized loops behave like normal code because their "branches"operate in the fetch pipeline stage and not the Execute stage.

An example of how synchronization works is given in FIG. 23. In thiscase PP2 102 and PP1 101 exchange the contents of their D0 registers,assuming that A0 and A1 contain the same addresses in each PP 101 and102. It also assumes that A0 and A1 point to different RAMs to avoidcontention. (It would still work even if they pointed to the same RAM,but would take extra cycles.)

In this example PP1 arrives at its LCK instruction one cycle after PP2arrives at its. PP2 has thus waited for one cycle. They then perform thestores simultaneously but PP2 then has a cache-miss when fetching theload instruction. Both PPs wait until the cache-miss has been servicedby transfer processor 11. They then execute the loads simultaneously andsimilarly the ULCKs. PP1 then experiences a cache-miss when fetchinginstruction 4, but since the PPs are now unlocked PP2 carried anunimpeded.

It should be noted that this simple example can be further simplified bycombining instructions 0 with 1, and 2 with 3. (i.e., LCK11 ST followedby ULCK11 LD). This way Just the loads are synchronized, but that is allthat is required in this case.

Synchronization in SIMD is implicit, so the LCK and ULCK instructionshave no purpose and so have no effect if coded. The S bit (26) in theStatus Register 3108 will have no effect if a program should set it toone.

Interrupts and Returns

Interrupts must be locked-out during the two delay slots after the PC3100 has been loaded. This prevents having to save both the current PC3100 value, and the branch address, and restore them on the return.Loads of the PC 3100 are forbidden during delay slot instructions, butif a user somehow does this, then the lock-out period isn't extended;otherwise, it would be possible to lock-out interrupts indefinitely.

Like many processors, there is a global interrupt enable bit (27) (I) instatus register 3108. This can be set/reset by the user toenable/disable all interrupts, except the master task interrupt, and theillegal operation code interrupt. Bit (27) is cleared by reset and bythe interrupt pseudo-instructions after status register 3108 has beenpushed.

Returns from interrupts are executed by the sequence POP SR, POP PC,DELAY1, DELAY2. The I (27), S (26) and CLD (23) and (22) bits of statusregister 3108 are loaded by the POP SR before the DELAY2 instruction,but their effects are inhibited until the branch (POP PC) instructionhas completed. This prevents them becoming effective before the returnhas completed.

There is provision for up to 16 interrupt sources on each PP 100-103. Ofthese, eleven are assigned, the others are left for future expansion.Those assigned are:

    ______________________________________                                        Master Task                                                                             The master processor wishes the PP(s) 100-                                    103 to run a new task. (Always enabled)                             Illop     An illegal opcode was detected. (Always                                       enabled)                                                            SIMD error                                                                              Applicable only to the "master" SIMD PP 100.                                  It is an OR of all enabled interrupts of the                                  three "slave" PPs 101-103.                                          Illadd    A non-existent on-chip address was accessed.                        Contention                                                                              Contention was detected. Interrupt is taken                                   after contention is resolved in the normal                                    manner.                                                             Packet Request                                                                          The transfer processor has exhausted the                                      PP's packet request linked-list.                                    Master Message                                                                          Occurs when the master processor 12 writes                                    to the PP's message register.                                       PP0 Message                                                                             Occurs when PP0 writes to the PP's message                                    register.                                                           PP1 Message                                                                             Occurs when PP1 writes to the PP's message                                    register.                                                           PP2 Message                                                                             Occurs when PP2 writes to the PP's message                                    register.                                                           PP3 Message                                                                             Occurs when PP3 writes to the PP's message                                    register.                                                           ______________________________________                                    

Interrupt Registers

There are two registers that control interrupts; the interrupt flagregister 3106 (INTFLG), and the interrupt enable register 3107 (INTEN).

Interrupt enable register 3107 has individual enable bits for eachinterrupt, except for the master task and illop interrupts which havetheir associated enable bits hard-wired to one. This register is clearedto all zeros (except the two wired to one) by reset. Bits 15 to 0 areunimplemented.

Interrupt flag register 3106 has an individual flag for each interruptsource. This flag is latched by the source signals which are each activefor a single cycle. This register is cleared to all zeros by reset. Bits15 to 0 are unimplemented. Those marked as reserved will also behardwired to zero. Any flag can be cleared by writing a 1 to it. Writinga zero has no effect. This allows the flags to be polled and cleared bysoftware if desired instead of generating interrupts. When an interruptis taken, the associated flag will be cleared automatically by thehardware. If a flag is being set by a source at the same time as it isbeing cleared, then the set will dominate.

Interrupt flag register 3106 can be written with ones and zeros like anormal data register once the R (restore registers) bit (19) of statusregister 3108 is set. This allows task state restoring routines torestore the interrupt state.

When interrupts are enabled, by setting the I bit (27) in statusregister 3108, the interrupts are prioritized. Any enabled interruptwhose flag becomes set will be prioritized, and an interrupt generatedat the next possible opportunity. A sequence of threepseudo-instructions is generated which

1. Generates the address of interrupt vector and fetches it into the PC3100, having first copied the PC into RET 3103, and clears the interruptflag in 3106 unless it is being simultaneously set again;

2. Pushes RET 3103; and

3. Pushes SR 3108 and clears the S (26), I (27) and CLD (22) and (23)bits in SR 3108. It also disables the functions associated with thesebits until the execute stage has completed.

Contention resolution must be supported by the above sequence, so it maytake more than three cycles to execute. Similarly a cache-miss on eitherof the first two instructions of the interrupt routine will cause thepipeline to pause.

The interrupt vectors are fetched from the PPs' own Parameter RAM 10.Since these exist at the same logical address for each PP 100-103, theinterrupt logic in each PP 100-103 generates the same vector addresses.

It is a consequence of the pipelining that neither of the first twoinstructions of an interrupt routine can be a LCK instruction. Forsimilar reasons the interrupt logic must disable interrupts 3106,SYNC/PP# 3104 and loop logic 3102 until the execute stage of the thirdpseudo-instruction has completed. This prevents these functions frombeing active during the fetching of the first two instructions of theinterrupt routine.

Interrupts are handled slightly differently in SIMD from MIMD. In orderto maintain stack coherency there is a signal from the "master" PP 100to the "slave" PPs 101-103 that indicates that it is taking aninterrupt. This causes the "slave" PPs 101-103 to execute their sequenceof interrupt pseudo-instructions. It really doesn't matter whichinterrupt vector they fetch since their PCs 3100 are ignored anyway.

In SIMD configuration there is also the need to pass back to the"master" PP 100 the fact that a "slave" PP 101-103 has detected anenabled interrupted event. This could be contention, or an illegaladdress access or a message interrupt. Since any one of these is almostcertainly an error they are handled by only one interrupt level on the"master" PP 100. There is one signal 3010 running from the "slave" PPs101-103 to the "master" PP 100 which is the logical OR of all the"slave" PPs 101-103 enabled interrupts. The slave(s) 101-103 issuing theinterrupt won't execute the interrupt pseudo-instructions until the"master" to "slaves" interrupt signal 3009 becomes valid.

If an interrupt occurs (from the "master" PP 100) while the SIMD pausesignal 3007 is active, the issuing of the "master" to "slaves" interruptsignal 3009 will be delayed until the cause of the pause has beenremoved. If the cause of the pause is a cache-miss, the cache-miss willbe aborted and the interrupt can be taken immediately.

Branches and Calls

Branches and calls are achieved by writing into the PC 3100, which is anaddressable register like any other PP register at the same time thatthe branch address is written into the PC 3100 the value of PC+1 iscopied into the return address register, RET 3103. This is the valuerequired for a return if the branch is really a call. This RET register3103 is then programmed to be pushed onto the stack by either of thedelay slot instructions in order to make it into a call. To allowconditional calls there is an instruction for conditionally pushing thereturn address. This only occurs if the branch is taken.

As described earlier, instructions specifying the PC 3100 as thedestination will lock-out interrupts until after the second delayinstruction has been fetched. This prevents problems with the branchaddress and/or return address getting lost. During this periodsynchronization is also disabled as described earlier. In order toprevent problems on returns from interrupts with loop logic 3102becoming activated too early, loop end address compare is also disabledduring the two delay slot instructions.

Status Register

Status Register 3108 is resident in the PFC unit 3002 and shown in FIG.34. Each bit's function is described in the following sections.

The N-- Negative bit (31) is set by certain instructions when the resultwas negative. Writing to this bit in software will override the normalnegative result setting mechanism.

The C-- Carry bit (30) is set by certain instructions when a carry hasoccurred. Writing to this bit in software will override the normalresult carry setting mechanism.

The V-- Overflow bit (29) is set by certain instructions when anoverflow has occurred. It is not a permanently latched overflow. Itsvalue will only be maintained until the next instruction that willset/reset it is executed. Writing to this bit in software will overridethe normal result overflow setting mechanism.

The Z-- Zero bit (28) is set by certain instructions when the result waszero. Writing to this bit in software will override the normal zeroresult setting mechanism.

The I-- Interrupt Enable bit (27), which is set to zero by reset andinterrupts, is a global interrupt enable. It enables all the interruptswhose interrupt enable bits are set. Due to normal pipeline delayschanging the value of this bit will have no effect until after theexecute stage has completed.

The S-- Synchronized code execution bit (26), which is set to zero byreset and interrupts, indicates that synchronous MIMD code execution isoperating. Instructions will only be fetched when all the PPs indicatedby the SYNC bits in the SYNC/PP# 3104 register are outputting activesync signals 40. This bit's value is ignored in SIMD configuration.

The MLD-- Maximum looping depth bits (24) and (25), which are set tozero by reset, indicate how many levels of loop logic are operating.00-- indicates no looping, 01-- just loop 1, 10-- loops 1 and 2, 11--all three loops active.

The CLD-- Current looping depth bits (22) and (23), which are set tozero by reset, indicate which of the Loop End registers is currentlybeing compared against the PC. 00-- indicates no looping, 01-- Loop End1, 10-- Loop End 2, 11-- Loop end 3. These bits are set to zero by resetand by interrupts once status register 3108 has been pushed.

The R-- Restoring registers bit (19), which is set to zero by reset, isused when restoring the state of the machine after a task switch. Whenset to a one, it allows interrupt flag register 3106 to be written withones and zeros like a normal register, and also the message registers tobe restored without causing new message interrupts. It also enables theQ bit (17) of status register 3108 to be written to for similar reasons.The R bit (19) will therefore only be used by task restoring routines.

The U-- Upgrade packet request priority bit (18), which is set to zeroby reset, is used to raise normal background priority packet requests toforeground. Its value is transmitted to transfer processor 11 and isused in conjunction with the Q bit's value to determine the priority oftransfer requests. This bit remains set until reset by software.

The Q-- Queued packet request bit (17), which is set to zero by reset,indicates that the PP has a packet request queued. It becomes set onecycle after the P bit (16) of the status register 3108 is written with aone. This bit's value is transmitted to transfer processor 11 and usedin conjunction with the U bit's (18) value to determine the priority oftransfer requests. This bit is cleared by transfer processor 11 once thePP's linked-list of packet requests has been exhausted. If this bit isbeing set (via the P bit (16)) by software at the same time as transferprocessor 11 is trying to clear it, then the set will dominate. Writingto this bit directly has no effect, unless the R bit (19) in statusregister 3108 is set, when this bit can be written with a one or zero.This can be used to de-queue unwanted packet requests, but is morenormally needed for restoring interrupted tasks.

The P-- Packet Request bit (16), which is set to zero by reset, is aone-shot single-cycle bit, used to set the Q bit (17) in status register3108. This initiates a packet request to transfer processor 11. The P/Qbit mechanism is to allow read-modify-write operations on statusregister 3108 without accidentally initiating packet requests if thepacket request bit was cleared by the TP 11 between the read and write.

All unimplemented status register bits 3108 will read as zero. Writingto them has no effect. They should only be written with zeros tomaintain future device compatibility.

Synchronization Indicators

The four SYNC bits, which are set to zero by reset, are used to indicateto which PP a MIMD PP wishes to synchronize. When executing code boundedby LCK and ULCK instructions, instruction fetches will not proceedunless al those processors indicated by one in the corresponding SYNCbits are outputting sync signals 40. These bit values are ignored inSIMD configuration.

The two PP# bits are unique to each PP 100-103. They are hardwired toallow software to determine which PP it is running on, and thuscalculate correct unique addresses. Writing to these bits has no effect.

The coding of these bits is; 00-- PP0 100, 01-- PP1 01, 10-- PP2 102 and11-- PP3 103. PP0 100 is the "master" SIMD PP. The associated startaddresses of the PPs' Local crossbar RAMs are; 0000h-- PP0 100, 2000h--PP1 101, 4000h-- P2 102 and 6000h-- PP3 103.

Pipeline control can be difficult. The reason for this is the number ofconcurrent operations that inter-relate as demonstrated below:

Instruction fetch with associated cache management. Address generationswith various addressing modes. Crossbar access requests with independentcontention resolution. Memory transfers. Loop address compare, with PCload/increment. Loop count decrement/reload. Looping depth countdecrement/reload. Multiply. Shift. Add/subtract. Synchronization withother PPs. Interrupt detection/prioritization.

The pipeline "events" that cause an "abnormality" in the straightforwardexecution of linear code are:

Instruction cache-miss Contention on the Global and/or Local buses LoopsBranches and calls Interrupts Idling Synchronization

In the following sections the events are shown diagrammatically. Theabbreviations "pc+1" and "pc" indicate whether the Program Counter 3100is incremented normally, or not, respectively. The pipeline boundariesmarked are the Stages, which consist of the slave clock phase followedby the master clock phase, ie. |s:m |. Where cycles may be repeated anindefinite number of times this is shown by "|... |".

Cache-miss Pipeline Sequence

The pipeline sequence for a cache-miss is shown in FIG. 35. Thecache-miss is detected during the slave phase causing the PP's syncsignals 40 to become inactive, the SIMD pause 3007 to become active, thePC 3100 not to be incremented and the pipeline 3105 not be loaded. Thepipeline pauses. The previous instruction is left generatingaddress(es), but not modifying address registers 3202 and 3222. Theprevious instruction to that is left repeating the data unit operations,but not storing the results. The crossbar accesses however complete tomemory in the case of stores, or to temporary holding latches 3018 and3019, in the case of loads. These accesses are not reperformed onfurther repetitions of the execute stage.

A cache-miss service request signal 3115 is sent to the TP 11. The PP100-103 waits until this is acknowledged, then transfers the cache-missinformation to the TP 11. The PP 100-103 again waits until the presentflag is set by a signal from the TP 11. Once the present flag is set,sync signals 40 can again become active, the SIMD pause signal 3007becomes inactive and the instruction fetching and PC 3100 incrementingcan recommence. This releases address unit 3001 and data unit 3000 tocomplete their operations. Loads complete from the temporary holdinglatches 3018 and 3019 into their destination registers.

If an interrupt should occur (which can't by definition be in the twodelay slot instructions after a PC 3100 load) during a cache-miss, thenthe cache-miss is aborted by taking the cache-miss service requestsignal 3115 inactive. This prevents needlessly waiting for code to befetched which may not then be required. The TP 11 will abort acache-miss service in progress if it sees the cache-miss service requestsignal 3115 go inactive.

Contention Resolution Pipeline Sequence

The pipeline sequence for contention resolution is shown in FIG. 36. Inthis example, contention is experienced on both local bus 3006 andglobal bus 3005. Contention is defined as two or more PP local buses3006 and/or global buses 3005 outputting addresses within the samememory at the same time. They can be any mixture of loads and/or stores.Contention is indicated by the crossbar or address contention signalsand 3211 to global bus 3005 and local bus 3006, respectively during theslave phase of the execute pipeline stage. The PP's sync signal 40 isdriven inactive and the SIMD pause signal 3007 active.

The execute pipeline stage repeats with each bus 3005 and 3006re-outputting the address which was latched in the address unit duringthe address pipeline stage. When successful, stores complete to memory10 and loads complete to temporary holding latches. In fact the loadonly goes to a holding latch 3018 or 3019 on the first bus to resolvecontention. The second port can complete directly into the destinationregister if a load.

In this example local bus 3006 is successful at the first retry. If itis a store, then it goes straight to memory 10. If it is a load, thedata is written to a temporary holding latch 3019. Global bus 3005 inthis example has to perform two retries before being able to proceedwith the transfer.

While the retries are being performed, instruction fetching has ceased.The next instruction was fetched before contention was detected butdoesn't begin to execute until contention is fully resolved. Thefollowing instruction is repeatedly fetched, but not loaded into thepipeline.

Once contention is resolved, sync signal 40 can again become active, theSIMD pause signal 3007 becomes inactive, and instruction fetching canrecommence.

Loop Control Pipeline Sequence

The pipeline sequence for loop control is shown in FIG. 37. In thisexample only one loop is defined (using Loop End 1 3116, Loop Count 13119 and Loop Reload 1 3122 registers). It contains 2 instructions, andthe loop counter value before starting the loop is 2. The principles canbe extended to all three loops.

In this example, when PC 3100 is found (during the slave phase) to beequal to loop end register 3116, loop counter 3119 is compared to 1. Asit is not equal, the PC 3100 is reloaded from start address register3111, loop counter 3119 is decremented by 1 and the current loopingdepth bits 3108 (bits (22) and (23)) are reloaded from the maximumlooping depth bits 3108 (bits (24) and (25)) (in this example the CLDbits values don't change).

The loop is repeated again, but this time when the end of loop isdetected, loop counter 3119 is 1, so PC 3100 is incremented to the nextinstruction instead of being loaded from start address register 3111.Loop counter 3119 is reloaded from loop reload register 3122 and currentlooping depth bits 3108 (bits (22) and (23)) are decremented by 1.

The pipeline sequence for a branch or call is shown in FIG. 38. When thebranch address is written into the PC 3100 the value of PC+1 (calculatedduring the slave phase) is loaded into RET 3103. This is the address ofthe instruction after the second delay instruction, and is the returnaddress for a call.

The branch address can come from memory, a register, an immediate 24-bitvalue or by adding a 24-bit index to the current PC value in 3100.

Difficulties with saving the branch address and the return address wouldoccur if interrupts were allowed during the delay slot instructions. Inorder to prevent this interrupts are locked out during the fetchpipeline stage of the two delay slot instructions. This requiresdecoding a PC 3100 destination during the slave phase of the addresspipeline stage. Lockout of interrupts will occur with conditionalbranches, as the condition isn't testable until after the two delay slotinstructions have been fetched.

As described in the synchronization section, branches and calls aretreated as one instruction as far as synchronization is concerned. Thusthe PP's sync signal 40 goes inactive during the two delay slotinstructions, with the timing shown. This is also true for conditionalbranches and calls regardless of the condition.

Also, since conditional calling is done by pushing RET 3103 (returnaddress) only if the conditional branch is taken, then there is apotential problem with conditional calls in SIMD, since the "slave" PPs101-103 don't know if the branch was taken. They therefore wouldn't knowif they should push RET 3103, and thus could lead to stackinconsistency. In order to fix this the signal "SIMD branch-taken" 3008is output from the "master" SIMD PP 100 to the "slave" PPs 101-103 whichthey use to determine if their PRET instructions should push RET 3103.This is taken active (or left inactive) with the timing shown.

Interrupts

The pipeline sequence for an interrupt is shown in FIG. 39. The sequenceis that for any machine in MIMD or SIMD, but if the interrupt source isa "slave" SIMD PP 101-103 then the sequence is kicked off by the "slave"PP to "master" PP interrupt signal 3010 as shown. The "slave" PP 101-103will wait for the "master" PP 100 to output the "master" PP to "slave"PPs interrupt signal 3009 as shown.

Once an enabled interrupt is detected, the sequence ofpseudo-instructions is commenced. The first instruction calculates theinterrupt vector address and fetches the vector into the PC 3100 andcopies the old PC value (return address) into RET 3103. The secondinstruction pushes RET 3103. The third instruction pushes the SR 3108and clears its S, I and CLD bits.

Note that the first two instructions of the interrupt routine are beingfetched before the SR 3108 has been pushed and its S, I and CLD bitscleared. The functions of the S, I and CLD bits are thus disabled by theinterrupt logic until SR 3108 has been pushed, and the S, I and CLD bitscleared.

IDLE Pipeline Sequence

The pipeline sequence for an IDLE instruction is shown in FIG. 40. TheIDLE instruction is decoded before the end of the slave phase of itsaddress pipeline stage, allowing it to stop the PC 3100 from beingincremented and the pipeline from being loaded with the nextinstruction. The MIMD pause is taken inactive and the SIMD pause signalis activated. Instruction fetching halts until the interrupt logicdetects an enabled interrupt. This will kick off the sequence ofpseudo-instructions once an enabled interrupt is detected. If theinterrupt source comes from a "slave" SIMD PP 101-103, then theinterrupt sequence isn't kicked off until the "master" PP to "slave" PPsinterrupt signal 3009 is activated.

If parallel transfers are coded with an IDLE instruction they will occurwhen the interrupt occurs, before the interrupt routine is executed.

Synchronization

The pipeline sequence for a synchronized MIMD or SIMD PP waiting for anincoming sync signal to become valid is shown in FIG. 41. The nextinstruction is not fetched into the instruction pipe until all thedesired PPs are outputting active sync signals.

Address Unit

The logic within address unit 3001 works predominantly during theaddress pipeline stage, calculating the address(es) required for thecrossbar'd memory 10 access(es) during the execute stage. The memoryaccess(es) during the execute stage however are also under the controlof this unit as it must independently resolve crossbar contention on thetwo ports 3005 and 3006. There is thus feedback from address unit 3001to PFC unit 3002, in order to pause the pipeline while contention isbeing resolved. There is also control logic which performs the registeraccesses and the aligner/extractor 3003 operations during the executestage.

A block diagram of address unit 3001 is given in FIG. 32. As can be seenfrom this diagram the majority of the unit consists of two identical16-bit subunits 3200 and 3201, one for generating addresses fromregisters A0-A3 3202, the other from registers A4-A7 3207. These arereferred to as the global and local subunits 3200 and 3201 respectively.

The naming of the local subunit 3201 is a slight misnomer since if asingle memory access is specified, and it is not a common SIMD load,then it can come from either subunit 3200 or 3201, and will be performedon the global bus 3005. This is the purpose of the multiplexers3212-3214 which are not within the subunits. If two parallel accessesare specified then they do come from their respectively named subunits.Common SIMD loads (on the local port 3006) must use the local subunit3201.

While the subunits 3200 and 3201 operate on and generate 16-bitaddresses, user software should not rely on rolling round from FFFFh to0000h, or vice-versa, as future designs may have subunits capable ofgenerating larger addresses.

Normal pipeline delays force a restriction upon the user that an addressregister 3202 and 3222, index register 3203 and 3223, qualifier register3204 and 3224 or modulo register 3205 or 3225 which is modified by aninstruction cannot be referenced by the following instruction. They maybe referenced by the next-but-one instruction. This allows interrupts tooccur without undesired consequences.

The global and local subunits 3200 and 3201 are identical apart from theregister numbers, so one description will serve for both. There arehowever slight differences in how the two units are connected and usedwhich will be highlighted, but the internal content of the subunits isthe same.

Within each subunit are four 16-bit address registers 3202 (A0-A3) or3222 (A4-A7). These contain indirect addresses which are either usedunchanged or to which indices are added. If an index is added, thenthere is the option of replacing the previous address register value inthe address registers 3202 and 3222 by the value created by indexing.

The values within the address registers 3202 and 3222 are alwaysinterpreted as byte addresses, regardless of the data size beingtransferred. Non-aligned word or half-word transfers can be specificallycoded but this requires two instructions. This is discussed later.

All address accesses of the PPs 100-103 must be sourced from an addressregister 3202 or 3222. The capability of coding an immediate addresswithin the opcode is not provided. This is considered to be of lowsignificance since SIMD tasks would not normally wish to specify thesame address for each PP. It is also thought to be of low importance forMIMD since MIMD algorithms should be written in such a manner that theycan be run on any PP.

Address register A7 3227 is reserved as the stack pointer. It can bereferenced like any other address register 3202 or 3222, but obviouslycare must be taken if adjusting A7's value, as interrupts can occur atany time. PUSH, POP and interrupts treat pushes as pre-decrement, andpops as post-increment.

Within each subunit 3200 or 3201 are four 16-bit index registers (X0-X3)3203 and (X4-X7) 3223. The contents of these can be requested by theopcode to be added to, or subtracted from, the contents of the specifiedaddress register 3202 or 3222, in order to perform indexed addressing.This addition/subtraction can be performed either before or after theaddress is put out onto crossbar 20, thus allowing pre- or post-indexingrespectively. The address created by pre-indexing can optionally bestored back into address register 3202 or 3222. This is compulsory forpost-indexing.

If only one access is specified by the opcode, then any one of the fourindex registers 3203 or 3223 within the same subunit as the addressregister 3202 or 3222 can be specified as the index source, (eg. A0 andX2, A6 and X4, ...). The indexing modes that can be specified are pre-or post-, addition or subtract, with or without address register 3202 or3222 modify.

If two parallel accesses are specified, then the index register 3203 or3223 with the same suffix as the address register 3202 or 3222 is used(eg. A2 and X2, A5 and X5), and only post-addition-indexing isavailable.

The values contained within the index registers 3203 and 3223 are alwaysinterpreted as byte addresses, regardless of the data size beingtransferred.

An alternative indexing method to index register indexing isshort-immediate or implied immediate indexing. Short-immediate indexing,which is available when only one access is specified, allows a 3-bitshort immediate value to be used as the index. As with index registerindexing this can be either pre- or post-, addition or subtraction, withor without address register 3202 or 3222 modify.

If two parallel access are coded then only an implied immediate of +1with post-indexing, and -1 with preindexing, can be specified. Theseallow stacks of 8, 16 or 32 bits to be accessed even when two paralleltransfers are coded.

When specifying short-immediate or implied immediate, the immediatevalue is shifted 0, 1 or 2 bits left by shifter 3208 or 3228 if thespecified word size is 8, 16 or 32 bits, respectively, before beingadded to the value from address register 3202 or 3222. Theshort-immediate index is thus 0-7 "units", and the implied immediate is+/-1 "unit", where a "unit" is the data size. The address register isnot shifted as it always contains a byte address.

Associated with each address register (A0-A3) 3202 or (A4-A7) 3222 is an8-bit address qualifier register (Q0-Q3) 3206 or (Q4-Q7) 3224. Thesequalifier registers contain extra information required for the accesswhich cannot be fitted into the opcode. This information typically isn'trequired to be modified on a cycle-by-cycle basis.

Since A7 3227 is assigned to be the stack pointer, bits 6-0 of Q7 3229are hardwired to 0000010 respectively. The individual bit functions ofthe Q registers 3204 and 3224 are described below:

A PP's address space is divided into two halves; data space (thecrossbar'd memory 10) and I/O space (the parameter RAMs, messageregisters and semaphore flags). This is controlled by an address spaceselect bit. If this bit is a 1, then the access is performed to the I/Ospace. Setting this bit to 0 directs the access to the crossbar'd RAM10.

If a power-of-2 modulo bit has value 1, then it indicates the desire tobreak the carry path on the address adder 3206 or 3226 at the positionindicated by a 1 (or perhaps several 1s) in the modulo register, M0 3205or M4 3225, associated with the subunit 3200 or 3201. This allowspower-of-2 dimension matrix addressing to be performed. If this bit is 0then the address adder 3206 or 3226 behaves as a normal 16-bitadder/subtracter.

If a reverse-carry addressing bit is set to a 1, then reverse-carryaddressing is enabled. This causes the carry path of the addressadder/subtracter 3206 or 3226 to reverse its direction. When specifyingindexed addressing with a power-of-2 index (eg. 8, 16, 32 etc.) this hasthe effect of counting in a manner required by FFTs and DCTs. If thisbit is 0 then the address adder 3206 or 3226 behaves as a normal 16-bitadder/subtracter.

A common SIMD load bit when set to 1 specifies that if a load isspecified, then it should be a common SIMD load. This bit, due to thenature of the common SIMD load, is only relevant to Q4-Q6 3224 of the"master" SIMD PP 100 when specifying a load. This will cause local buses3006 of the PPs to be series connected for the duration of the load. Ifthis bit is zero, then the common SIMD load function will be disabled.Setting this bit in "slave" PPs 100-103, or other than Q4-Q6 of the"master" SIMD PP, will have no effect. Stores are unaffected by this bitvalue.

When the sign extend bit is set to a 1, loads of half-words or byteswill have bit 15 or bit 7, respectively, copied to all themost-significant bits when loaded into the PP register. This is afunction of the aligner/extractor. If this bit is a 0, then all themost-significant bits will be zero-filled.

The two size bits specify the size of the data to be transferred. Thecodings are 00-- 8 bits, 01-- 16 bits, 10 -- 32 bits, 11-- reserved.These bits control the function of the align/extractor 3003, the bytestrobes on stores, and the sign extend function.

Address ALUs 3206 and 3226 are normal 16-bit adder/subtracters exceptthey can have the direction of their carry paths reversed or broken.

When performing in-place FFTs the addresses of either the source data orthe results are scrambled in a way that make them difficult to access.The scrambling however has an order to it that allows fairly easyunscrambling if the direction of the carry path of address adder 3206 or3226 is reversed. This feature which is common on DSPs is usuallyreferred to as reverse-carry addressing, or bit-reversed addressing.

A power-of-2 index (eg. 8, 16, 32 ...) equal to the power-of-2 number ofpoints in the FFT divided by 2, is added onto the address from theaddress register 3202 or 3222 using a reversed carry ripple path. Theresulting value is used as the address and stored in the addressregister 3202 or 3222. This produces the sequence of addresses requiredto unscramble the data, e.g., if the index is 8 and the initial addressregister value was 0, then the sequence 0, 8, 4 C, 2, A, 6, E, 1, 9, 5,D, 3, B, 7, F is produced.

The reverse-carry feature will operate with any indices other thanpower-of-2 numbers, but may not yield any useful results. This featureis only operative when the reverse-carry bit in Q register 3204 or 3224associated with the specified A register is set to 1.

When distributing data around crossbar memories 10, there may well besituations where a "wrap-around" is required in a particular dimension,in order to access consecutive data, handle boundary conditions oraddress arrayed data. In order to easily support this, the ability tobreak the carry path of address adder 3206 or 3226 at one or more chosenplaces is provided.

The location of the break(s) is determined by modulo register M0 3205 orM4 3225. A 1 located in bit n of a Modulo register will break the carrypath between bits n-1 and n of the address adder. This allows a 2^(n)modulo buffer to be implemented. Any number of 1s can be programmed intothe Modulo registers 3205 or 3225 as desired. This allowsmulti-dimensional arrays to be implemented, with each dimension being apower-of-2 modulo amount.

This feature is only active when the power-of-2 modulo bit in qualifierregister 3204 or 3224 associated with specified address register 3202 or3222 is set to 1. Otherwise normal linear addressing applies.

Local and Global Ports

The main feature of global ports 3005 and local ports 3006 are thealigner/extractors 3003. They handle the movement of 8, 16 and 32-bitdata, sign-extension, non-aligned access and common SIMD loads. Toachieve these functions the aligner/extractors 3003 are basically acollection of byte multiplexers, wired to give the required operations.Each global port 3005 or local port 3006 operates independently, so adescription of one applies for the other. Common SIMD load is theexception to this statement and is discussed with the other functionsbelow:

The data size of a load or store is defined within qualifier register3204 or 3224 associated with the specified address register 3202 or3222. Valid options are 8, 16 or 32 bits. The data size can thus vary ona cycle-by-cycle basis, dependant upon which address register 3202 or3222 is accessed and the values within its qualifier register 3204 or3224.

A full 32-bit word of data is always transferred across the crossbarbetween memory 10 and the PP 100-103, or vice-versa, even when thespecified word size is 8 or 16 bits. When performing loads of 8 or16-bit quantities, the appropriate byte(s) are extracted from the 32-bitword according to the LS bits of the address and the word size. This isright-shifted if required, to right-justify the data into the PPregister destination. The upper bytes are filled either with all zeros,or if sign extension was specified in the qualifier register 3204 or3222, the MS bit (either 15 or 7) is copied into the most significantbytes.

When storing 8 or 16-bit quantities to the crossbar'd memory 10 the(right-justified) data is repeated 4 or 2 times, respectively, byaligner/extractor 3003, to create a 32-bit word. This is then writtenacross crossbar 20 accompanied by four byte strobes which are setaccording to the LS bits of the address and the data size. Theappropriate byte(s) are then written into the memory.

The above description of data loads and stores assumes that theaddresses are aligned. That is, 16-bit accesses are performed to/fromaddresses with the LS bit=0, and 32-bit accesses are performed to/fromaddresses with the two LS bits-- 00. (8-bit quantities are alwaysaligned).

Provision however is made to allow accesses of non-aligned 16 or 32-bitdata. This is not automatic, but requires the user to specificallyencode loads or stores of the upper and lower parts of the dataseparately. There are thus four instructions available that "loadupper", "load lower", "store upper" and "store lower" parts of the data.These instructions use the byte address and data size to controlaligner/extractor 3003 and, in the case of loads, only load theappropriate part of the destination register. This requires theregisters to have individual byte write signals. For this reasonnon-aligned loads will be restricted to data registers 3200 only.

In practice the "load lower" and "store lower" instructions are thenormal load and store instructions. If the address is aligned then thetransfer is completed by the one instruction. If followed (or preceded)with the "upper" equivalent operation, then nothing will be transferred.If the address is not aligned, then only the appropriate byte(s) will bestored to memory or loaded into a register.

Some examples of non-aligned operation may help the explanation here andare shown in FIGS. 42 and 43. These are all little-endian examples whichare self explanatory.

Common SIMD Load

There is sometimes the need, such as in convolution, to perform twoaccesses in parallel in each machine each cycle. One of these is datacoming from anywhere in the crossbar'd memory 10 via global ports 3005,and the other is information "common" to each PP 100-103, such as akernel value. This would therefore be entering via local port 3006. Inorder to pass this information to all local ports 3006 simultaneouslyfrom one source of data, there are unidirectional buffers thatseries-connect local crossbar data buses 6.

These series connections are only made in SIMD, when an address register3222 in the local address subunit 3201 is accessed with the common SIMDload bit set in its associated qualifier register 3224, and a load isspecified. Under all other conditions local data buses 6 aredisconnected from each other. When the series connections are made, theaddresses output by PPs 1-3 101-103 (the "slave" SIMD PPs) are ignoredby the crossbar 20.

Since the series connecting buffers are unidirectional, the common datacan only be stored in the four crossbar RAMS 10-0, 10-2, 10-3 and 10-6opposite the "master" SIMD PP, PP0 100. (ie. in the address range 0000h-1FFFh).

Contention Resolution

The purpose of contention resolution is to allow the user to be freedfrom the worries of accidentally (or deliberately) coding twosimultaneous accesses into the same RAMby any two devices in the system.There are seven buses connected to each crossbar RAM. It would thereforebe a considerable constraint to always require contention avoidance.

In SIMD it is necessary for all PPs 100-103 to wait while contention isresolved. To achieve this a "SIMD pause" signal 3007 is routed betweenPPs 100-103, which can be activated by any PP 100-103 until theircontention is resolved. Similarly in MIMD when executing synchronizedcode all synchronized PPs must wait until contention is resolved. Thisis signalled via sync signals 40.

The crossbar accesses are completed as soon as global ports 3005 andlocal ports 3006 are granted ownership of the RAM(s) they are attemptingto access. In the case of stores they complete to memory 10 as soon asthey are able. In the case of loads, if the PP is unable to resumeexecution immediately (because contention is continuing on the otherport, or the SIMD pause signal 3007 is still active, or synchronizedMIMD PPs are waiting for another PP, or a cache-miss has occurred) thenthe load(s) complete into holding latches 3018 and 3019 until executionis recommenced. This is because the data unit operation is also beingheld and its source data (i.e., a data register 3300) cannot beoverwritten by a store. Similarly if a load and store are accessing thesame data register and the store is delayed by contention, then the loaddata must be held temporarily in latch 3018 or 3019.

Data Unit

The logic within data unit 3000 works entirely during the executepipeline stage. All of its operations use either registers only, or animmediate and registers. Indirect (memory) operands are not supported.Data transfers to and from memory are thus specifically coded as storesand loads.

A block diagram of data unit 3000 is given in FIG. 33. The majorcomponents of the unit consist of 8 Data registers 3300, 1 full barrelshifter 3301, a 32-bit ALU 3302, a single-cycle 16×16 multiplier 3304,special hardware for handling logical ones 3303, and a number ofmultiplexers 3305-3309. Also included are two registers 3310 or 3311closely associated with the barrel shifter 3301 and the ALU 3302. Theycontrol the operation of these two devices when certain instructions areexecuted.

There are eight D (data registers 3300) within data unit 3000. These aregeneral purpose 32-bit data registers. They are multi-ported andtherefore allow a great deal of parallelism. Four sources can beprovided to ALU 3302 and multiplier 3304 at the same time as twotransfers to/from memory are occurring.

Multiplier 3306 is a single-cycle hardware 16×16 multiplier. A 32-bitresult is returned to the register file 3300. The hardware will supportboth signed and unsigned arithmetic.

As can be seen from FIG. 33, there are many multiplexers feeding thevarious pieces of hardware within data unit 3000. The two multiplexers3306 or 3307 feeding ALU 3302 (one via barrel shifter 3301) however areslightly different in that they support individual byte multiplexing.This is so that the "merge multiple (MRGM)" instruction can operate.This instruction uses the 4, 2 or 1 least-significant bits of the MFLAGSregister 3311 to multiplex the individual bytes of each source with allzero bytes, so that what is passed into the ALU on one input is src1bytes and 00h bytes intermixed according the M FLAGS. The opposite mixof 00h bytes and src2 is passed into the other ALU input. ALU 3302 canthen do an ADD or an OR to produce a result which has some bytes fromsrc1 and the others from src2. This is very useful for performingsaturation, color expansion and compression, min and max, transparencyand masking.

Barrel shifter 3301 resides on the "inverting" input to ALU 3302. Thisallows the possibility of performing shift and add, or shift andsubtract operations using a predefined shift amount set up in theOPTIONS register 3310. This is very useful, especially since themultiplier has no result scaler. Barrel shifter 3301 can shift left orright by 0-31 bit positions, and can also do a 0-31 bit rotation.

The 32-bit ALU 3302 can perform all the possible logical operations,additions and subtractions. Certain instructions can cause ALU 3302 tobe split into two half-words or 4 bytes for addition or subtraction, sothat it can simultaneously operate on multiple pixels.

The "ones" logic 3303 performs three different operations. Left-most onedetection, right-most one detection, and it can also count the number ofones within a word. These together have various uses in datacompression, division and correlation.

The output of ALU 3302 has a one bit left-shifter which is used whenperforming divide iteration steps. It selects either the original sourceand shifts it left one place with zero insert, or else it selects theresult of the subtraction of the two sources, shifts it left one bit,and inserts a 1.

"Multiple" flags register 3311 is a 32-bit register that is used forcollecting the results of "add multiple", "subtract multiple" or"compare multiple" instructions. ALU 3302 can be split into 4, 2 or 1pieces by the value of the ALU bits in options register 3310. The leastsignificant 4, 2 or 1 bits of "multiple" flags register 3311 are loadedby the carry, borrow or equate bits of the three instructions.

The options register 3310 contains two control fields, the ALU split bitfor use with "multiple" instructions, and the barrel shifter predefinedamount for shift and add, and shift and subtract instructions.

Three ALU bits in 3310 allow the potential for the ALU 3302 to besplittable into pieces of size 2, 4, 8, 16 and 32 bits each. Theassigned codings are 000-- 2 bits, 001-- 4 bits, 010-- 8 bits, 011-- 16bits, 100-- 32 bits. In the current implementation, however, the onlypermitted values are 8, 16 and 32 bits. These bit values control theoperation of the ADDM, SUBM, MRGM and CMPM instructions.

Merge Multiple Instruction

FIG. 44 shows some complex operations that can be performed by thecombination of the splitable ALU instructions that set the MFLAGSregister with the Merge Multiple (MRGM) instruction utilizing themultplexer hardware of FIG. 33. The examples show only the datamanipulation part of what would generally be a loop involving many ofthese operations.

In the add with saturate example of FIG. 44, the ADDM instruction does 48-bit adds in parallel and sets the MFLAG register according to whethera carry out (signalling an overflow) occurs between each 8-bit add. The8-bit addition of Hex 67 to Hex EF and Hex CD to Hex 45 both cause acarry out of an 8-bit value which causes MFLAG bits 0 and 1 to get set(note only the 4 least significant bits of the MFLAG register will besignificant to the MRGM instruction) resulting in the MFLAG registerbeing set to "3". With D3 previously set to Hex FFFFFFFF, the MFLAGregister values are used to select between the result of the previousoperation contained in D2 or the saturation value of Hex "FF" stored inD3.

The Maximum function is obtained by doing a SUBM followed by using thesame two registers with the MRGM instruction. The SUBM will set the bitsof MFLAG register according to whether each 8-bits of a 32-bit value inone register is greater than the corresponding 8-bits in the otherregister as a result of 4 parallel 8-bit subtractions. As shown in theexample, the MFLAG result of "5" (or binary "0101" for the 4 leastsignificant bits) indicates that Hex "EE" was greater than Hex "67" andthat Hex "AB" was greater than Hex "23". By using the MFLAG results withthe MRGM instruction the greater of the corresponding values withinregisters D0 and D1 become the final result stored in D2.

With transparency, a comparision is made between a "transparent color"or protected color value (in the example shown the value "23" istransparent) which will later protect writing of those 8-bit values. TheCMPM instruction performs 4 parallel 8-bit comparisons and sets thecorresponding 4 MFLAG bits based on equal comparisons. In the example,only the third comparison from the right was "equal" signified by a "4"(binary "0100") in the MFLAG register. The MRGM instruction will thenonly use D0's values for the result except in the third 8-bits from theright.

Color expansion involves the selection of two multiple bit values basedon a logic "1" or "0" in a binary map. In the example, the 4-bit valueof Hex "6" (binary 0110) is moved into the MFLAG register. The MRGMinstruction in this example simple selects between the 8-bit values inD0 and D1 according to the corresponding locations in the MFLAGregister.

In color compression, a binary map is created based on whether or notthe corresponding values match a specific color value. In this case theCMPM instruction's result in the MFLAG register is the result desired.

In the guided copy example, a binary pattern array is used to determinewhich values of the source are copies to the destination. In the examplethe upper two 8-bit values of D0 will be copied to D1.

In the examples above 8-bit data values have been used by way ofexample. The number and size of the data values is not limited howeverto four eight-bit values.

Several important combinations of the arithmetic multiple instructionsused with the merge instruction are shown. Many other combinations anduseful operations are possible. It is significant that a large number ofuseful operations can be obtained by using the arithmetic multipleinstructions that set the mask register and are followed by the mergeinstruction.

Two OPT bits in options register 3310 specify the type of shift thatbarrel shifter 3301 will perform during shift and add, and shift andsubtract instructions. The codings are 00-- shift-right logical, 01--shift-right arithmetic, 10-- shift-left logical, and 11-- rotate.

The AMOUNT bits in options register 3310 specify the number of bits ofshift or rotate of the type indicated by the OPT bits, and occurringwhen shift and add, or shift and subtract instructions are executed.

Appendix

The Appendix details each available instruction of the PPs 100-103. Dots(.) represent operation codes that can be assigned as desired. Some ofthese instructions have already been explained in the earlier text.

The order of instruction presentation is:

1. Data unit instructions (with or without parallel transfers) andsingle operation instructions (i.e., no parallel operations).

2. The transfers that can occur in parallel with data unit operations.

Transfer Processor

Transfer processor 11 is the interface between system memory 10 and theexternal world. In particular, it is responsible for all accesses toexternal memory 15.

Transfer processor 11, shown in detail in FIG. 57, mainly performs blocktransfers between one area of memory and another. The "source" and"destination" memory may be on- or off-chip and data transfer is via bus5700 and FIFO buffer memory 5701. On-chip memory includes: crossbar datamemory 10, PP's instruction caches 10, master processor instructioncache 14, and master processor data cache 13 (shown in FIGS. 1 and 2).Data memories 10 and data cache 13 can be both read and written. Theinstruction caches 14 are only written.

All operations involving the caches are requested automatically by thelogic associated with the caches. In this case the amount of data movedwill be the cache "line" size, and the data will be moved betweenexternal memory 15 specified by the appropriate segment register and asegment of the cache.

Transfers involving crossbar data memories 10 are performed in responseto "packet requests" from parallel processors 100-103 or masterprocessor 12 and are accomplished via bus 5707. The packet requestspecifies the transfer in terms of a number of parameters including theamount of data to be moved and the source and destination addresses.

Block Transfers

A packet request specifies a generalized block transfer from one area ofmemory to another. Both source address generator 5704, and destinationaddress generator 5705 are described in the same way. A "block" may be asimple contiguous linear sequence of data items (bytes, half-words,words or long-words) or may consist of a number of such regions. Theaddressing mechanism allows an "array" of up to 3 dimensions to bespecified. This allows a number of two dimensional patches to bemanipulated by a single packet request. Data items along the innermostdimension are always one unit apart. The distance between items ofhigher dimensions is arbitrary. The counts of each dimension are thesame for both source and destination arrays. FIG. 45 is an example of acomplex type of block that can be specified in a single packet request.It shows a block consisting of two groups of three lines each consistingof 512 adjacent pixels. This might be needed for example if two PPswhere going to perform a 3×3 convolution, each working on one of thegroups of lines.

The block is specified in terms of the following parameters as shown inFIG. 45:

    ______________________________________                                        Run length   Number of contiguous items e.g. 512                                           pixels.                                                          Level 2 Count Number of "lines" in a group, e.g., 3                           Level 3 Count Number of "groups" in a "block" e.g., 2                         Start Address                                                                              Linear address of the start of the                                            block, e.g., address of pixel indicated                                       as "SA".                                                         Level 2 Step Distance between first level groups,                                          e.g., difference of the addresses of                                          pixels "B" and "A".                                              Level 3 Step Distance between second level groups,                                         e.g., difference of the addresses of                                          pixels "D" and "C".                                              ______________________________________                                    

VRAM Auxiliary

The manner in which a video RAM would be used in conjunction with themulti-processor is described with respect to FIG. 58 where the CCD inputfrom the video camera or other video signal input would be clocked byA/D converter 5802 into shift register 5801. Data can be shifted in orout of shift register 5801 into random memory matrix 5800 which in thiscase is the entire memory 15 shown in FIG. 1. The S clock input is usedto control the shifting of the information in or out shift register5801. Data out of the random memory matrix 5800 is controlled by theparallel processors in the manner previously discussed such that theinformation can be used in parallel or in serial to do image processingor image control or figure identification or to clean the specks frompaper or other copies. The ISP accesses the data in the video RAM viaport 21 in FIG. 58. The purpose of the shift register interaction withthe random memory matrix is so that information can come asynchronouslyfrom the outside and be loaded into random memory matrix without regardto the processor operational speed. At that point the transfer processorthen begins the transfer of information in the manner previouslydiscussed. The input information would typically include NTSC standardswhich would include the horizontal sync and blanking and verticalrefresh signals, which could be used as timing signals to control theloading or unloading of information from random memory matrix 5800.

The parallel processors can do many things with the data in randommemory matrix 5800. Some of these can be processed at the same time. Forexample, color information can be separated for later processing or fordistribution in accordance with the intelligence of the data, aspreviously discussed, or the information content of the received datacan be manipulated as discussed previously with respect to FIG. 11.

Operational Relationships

The number of controllers and data paths, and how they are configuredwith memory can be used to help classify architectures with respect toMIMD and SIMD. In simplest form a "processor" consists of one or morecontrollers and one or more data paths.

FIG. 59 shows a typical MIMD configuration of four separate processingelements (5901, 5911, 5921, and 5931) connected to instruction memories(5904, 5914, 5924, and 5934) and data memories (5907, 5917, 5927, and5937). Note while the instruction and data memories are shownseparately, they may actually be the same physical memory. Eachprocessing element consists of two major blocks, the controller (5902,5912, 5922, 5932) and data path (5905, 5915, 5925, 5935). Theinstruction memories provide control instructions to their respectivecontrollers via instruction buses (5903, 5913, 5923, 5933). The datamemories are accessed under control of the respective controller and goto the data paths via the data buses (5906, 5916, 5926, 5936). In someinstances the instruction bus and data bus may in fact be the samephysical bus, or the bus may actually be a set of buses configured in acrossbar arrangement. The controller controls the data path with a setof control signals (5908, 5918, 5928, 5938).

In the MIMD configuration of FIG. 59, each processor can be executingcompletely independent instructions on either distributed or shareddata.

FIG. 60 shows a general SIMD configuration with a single controller 6002and instruction memory 6004. Instructions pass to the controller via bus6003. The single controller generates a single set of control signals6000 that drive multiple data paths (6010, 6020, 6030, and 6040). Eachdata path is shown connected to its own memory (6012, 6022, 6032, 6042)via buses (6011, 6021, 6031, 6041). While for simplicity each data pathis shown having a single way of connecting to the data memories, theremay in fact be various ways in which the data paths and data memoriescan be connected such as via a crossbar arrangement or via a sequentialpassing of data as shown in FIG. 8.

In the SIMD configuration of FIG. 60, a single instruction stream isused to control multiple data paths. In the general SIMD case, such asshown in FIG. 60, there is only one controller for the multiple datapaths.

FIG. 61 shows an embodiment of the system which is the subject of thisinvention, where the system is configured to behave in a MIMD mode. Viathe crossbar 20, each parallel processor (100, 101, 102, or 103) caneach use a memory within the memory space 10 as its instruction memory.The controller 3002 of each parallel processor thus can get its owndifferent instruction stream. The synchronization signals in bus 40 areignored by each parallel processor that is configured to be in the MIMDmode of operation. Since each controller can control via control signals3112 a different data path 3100 and each data path can have access to adifferent memory via the crossbar, the system can operate in a MIMDmode.

FIG. 62 shows the same hardware of FIG. 61, however, the parallelprocessors have been configured in a SIMD mode. In this mode, a singleinstruction memory is connected to all processors as described in thediscussion related to FIG. 28. With each of the SIMD organized parallelprocessors receiving the same instruction, each controller will issuegenerally the same control signals. For example, there may bedifferences in control signals due to data dependencies which must betaken account of. The synchronization signals in bus 40 serve twopurposes: first they are used to get the parallel processors all startedon the same instruction when transitioning from MIMD to SIMD operation,and second once started in SIMD operation they keep the parallelprocessor from getting out of step due to events that may not affect allprocessors equally (for example if two processors access the samememory, the conflict resolution logic will allow one of the processorsto access the memory before the other one). Thus while there aremultiple controllers, the net system result will be the same as that ofthe conventional SIMD organization of FIG. 60. As has been previouslydescribed, some of the memories used as instruction memories in the MIMDmode are now free for use as data memories in the SIMD mode ifnecessary.

FIG. 63 shows the same hardward of FIGS. 61 and 62 but configured forsynchronized MIMD operation. In this mode, each processor can executedifferent instructions, but the instructions are kept in step with eachother by the synchronization signals of bus 40. Typically in this modeof operation only a few of the instructions will differ between theprocessors, and it will be important to keep the processor accesses tomemory in the same relative order.

FIG. 64 illustrates one of many other variations of how the samehardware as that in FIG. 61, 62, and 63 can be configured. In thisexample, processors 100 and 101 have been configured in SIMD operationby sharing a common instruction memory and by utilizing thesynchronization signals of bus 40. Processors 102 and 103 are utilizingseparate instruction memories and are ignoring the synchronizationsignals of bus 40 and are thus running in MIMD mode. It should be notedthat many other variations of the allocation of processors to MIMD,SIMD, or synchronized MIMD could be performed, and that any number ofthe processors could be allocated to any of the 3 modes.

Preferred Embodiment Features

Various important features of the preferred embodiment are summarizedbelow.

A multi-processing system is shown with n processors, each processoroperable from instruction sets provided from a memory source forcontrolling a number of different processes, which rely on the movementof data to or from one or more addressable memories with m memorysources each having a unique addressable space, where m is greater thann and having a switch matrix connected to the memories and connected tothe processors and with circuitry for selectively and concurrentlyenabling the switch matrix on a processor cycle by cycle basis forinterconnecting any of the processors with any of the memories for theinterchange between the memories and the connected processors ofinstruction sets from one or more addressable memory spaces and datafrom other addressable memory spaces.

A processing system is shown with a plurality of processors, arranged tooperate independent from each other from instructions executed on acycle-by-cycle basis, with the system having a plurality of memories andcircuitry for interconnecting any of the processors and any of thememories and including circuitry for interconnecting any of theprocessors and any of the memories and including circuitry for arranginga group of the processors into the SIMD operating mode where all of theprocessors of the group operate from the same instruction and circuitryoperable on a processor cycle-by-cycle basis for changing at least someof the processors from operation in the SIMD operating mode to operationin the MIMD operational mode where each processor of the MIMD groupoperates from separate instructions provided by separate instructionmemories.

An image processing system is shown with n processors, each processoroperable from instruction streams provided from a memory source forcontrolling a number of different processes, which processes rely on themovement of data from m addressable memories each having a uniqueaddressable space, and wherein m is greater than n and with a switchmatrix connected to the memories and connected to the processors andincluding circuitry for selectively and concurrently interconnecting anyof the processors with any of the memories so that the processors canfunction in a plurality of operational modes, each mode havingparticular processor memory relationships; and including aninterprocessor communication bus for transmitting signals from anyprocessor to any other selected processor for effecting said operationalmode changes.

A multi-processing system is further shown comprising n processors, eachprocessor operable from an instruction stream provided from a memorysource for controlling a process, said process relying on the movementof data to or from m addressable memories; each memory source having anaddressable space and a switch matrix having links connected to thememories and connected to the processors; and including circuitry forsplitting at least one of the links of the switch matrix for selectivelyand concurrently interconnecting any of the processors with any of thememories for the interchange between the memories and the connectedprocessors of instruction streams from one or more memory addressablespaces and data from other addressable memory spaces.

A processing system is shown having a plurality of processors, eachprocessor capable of executing its own instruction stream with controlcircuitry associated with each of the processors for establishing whichof the processors are to be synchronized therewith and with instructionresponsive circuitry associated with each processor for determining theboundary of instructions which are to be synchronized with the othersynchronized processors and for setting a flag between such boundaries;and including circuitry in each processor for establishing a ready toexecute mode; and control logic associated with each processor forinhibiting the execution of any instruction in the processor'sinstruction stream while each flag is set in the processor until all ofthe other processors established by the processor as being synchronizedwith the processor are in a ready to execute mode.

A multi-processing system is shown with m memories, each memory having aunique addressable space, with the total addressable space of the mmemories defined by a single address word having n bits; and a memoryaddress generation circuit for controlling access to addressablelocations with the m memories according to the value of the bits of saidaddress word; and with addition circuitry having carryover signalsbetween bits for accepting an index value to be added to an existingaddress word to specify a next address location; and with circuitryoperative for diverting the carryover signals from certain bits of saidword which would normally be destined to toggle a next adjacent memoryaddress word bit so that said carryover signal instead toggles a remotebit of the memory address word.

A circuit for indicating the number of "ones" in a binary string, thecircuit having an AND gate having first and second inputs and an output;an XOR gate having first and second inputs and an output, the firstinput thereof connected to the first input of the AND gate, the secondinput connected to the second input of the AND gate; and where thesecond inputs of the AND and XOR gates receive one bit of the binarystring and the output of XOR gate produces an output binary numberrepresentative of the number of "ones" in the bit of the binary string.

A multi-processing system is shown with n processors operable frominstruction streams provided from a memory source for controlling anumber of different processes, said processes relying on the movement ofdata from one or more addressable memories; and with m memory sources,each having a unique addressable space, some of the memories adapted toshare instruction streams for the processors and the others of thememories adapted to store data for the processors; and with a switchmatrix for establishing communication links between the processors andthe memories, the switch matrix arranged with certain links providingdedicated communication between a particular processor and a particularone of the memories containing the instruction streams; and withcircuitry for rearranging certain matrix links for providing data accessto memories previously used for instructions, and circuitry concurrentlyoperative with the rearranging circuitry for connecting all of theprocessors to a particular one of the certain links so that instructionsfrom the instruction memory associated with the certain link arecommunicated to all of the system processors.

An imaging system having an image input, each image having a pluralityof pixels, each pixel capable of having a plurality of data bitsassociated therewith; a memory; an image bus for transporting pixelsfrom each image at the input to the memory; and circuitry forinterpreting received images in accordance with parameters stored in thememory, the interpreting resulting from the parameters being applied tothe pixels of each received image.

A switch matrix is arranged for interconnecting a plurality of firstports with a plurality of second ports, the switch matrix having: aplurality of vertical buses, each bus associated with a particular oneof the first ports; and a plurality of individually operablecrosspoints; and a plurality of horizontal buses connected to the secondports for connecting, via enabled ones of the cross points, one of thefirst ports and any one of the second ports and including circuitry ateach crosspoint, associated with each vertical bus for handlingcontention between competing ones of the second ports for connection tosaid vertical bus.

Summary

Although the present invention has been described with respect to aspecific preferred embodiment thereof, various changes and modificationsmay be suggested by one skilled in the art, and it is intended that thepresent invention encompass such changes and modifications as fallwithin the scope of the appended claims. Also, it should be understoodthat while emphasis has been placed on image processing the systemdescribed herein can as well be used for graphics, signallingprocessing, speech, sonar, radar and other high density real timeprocessing. High definition TV and computing systems are a natural forthis architecture. ##SPC1##

What is claimed is:
 1. An imaging computer system comprising:an imageinput device disposed to form an analog image signal corresponding toobjects in a predefined space; an analog to digital conversion deviceconnected to said image input device for converting said analog imagesignal into a series of digital numbers having a predetermined number ofbits, thereby forming a digital pixel image; an image memory connectedto said analog to digital converter for storing said digital pixelimage; a programmable image processing device disposed on a singleintegrated circuit configured to receive said digital pixel image ofobjects in the predefined space, identify any hand signs within saiddigital pixel image, assign a meaning to any identified hand signs andgenerate a coded digital output corresponding to said assigned meaning.2. The imaging computer system as claimed in claim 1, wherein:saidprogrammable image processing device includes a master processor forcontrolling operation of said imaging processing device, said masterprocessor operating on an instruction cycle, a plurality of parallelprocessors each capable of performing independent image operations ondigital image data including movement of said digital image data to andfrom a plurality of addressable memory spaces, each of said parallelprocessors operating on said instruction cycle, a transfer processorconnected to said image memory for transferring data between said imagememory and said image processing device, said transfer processoroperating on said instruction cycle, a plurality of memories forming aplurality of addressable memory spaces, and a crossbar switch matrixconnected to said master processor, each of said parallel processors,said transfer processor and each of said memories, said crossbar switchmatrix reconfigurable each instruction cycle for granting said masterprocessor, each of said parallel processors and said transfer processoraccess to said plurality of memories.
 3. The imaging computer system asclaimed in claim 1, wherein:said image input device includes a videocamera.
 4. The imaging computer system as claimed in claim 1, furthercomprising:a digital output bus connected to said image processingdevice for transmitting said coded digital output corresponding to saidassigned meaning.
 5. The imaging computer system as claimed in claim 1,further comprising:a visual display device connected to said imageprocessing device; and said image processing device further configuredto generate a human readable text output corresponding to said codeddigital output and to generate a visual output signal for display viasaid visual display device, said visual output signal corresponding tosaid human readable text output overlain upon said image.
 6. The imagingcomputer system as claimed in claim 1, further comprising:a transmissionsender connected to said image input device for transmitting said image;and a transmission receiver connected to said transmission sender andsaid image processing device and disposed remotely from saidtransmission sender for receiving said transmitted image and supplyingsaid received transmitted image to said image processing device.
 7. Theimaging computer system as claimed in claim 1, wherein:said imageprocessing device further configured to interpret said coded digitaloutput as a user input command and to perform at least one taskcorresponding to said user input command.
 8. The imaging computer systemas claimed in claim 1, further comprising:a latch circuit connected tosaid image processing device and an external controlled mechanism forcontrol of the controlled mechanism; and said image processing devicefurther configured to operate said latch circuit corresponding to saidcoded digital output thereby controlling the controlled mechanismcorresponding to said identified hand signs within said digital pixelimage.
 9. The imaging computer system as claimed in claim 1,wherein:said hand signs identified by said image processing deviceinclude deaf communication signs.
 10. An imaging computer systemcomprising:an image input device disposed to form an analog image signalcorresponding to objects in a predefined space; an analog to digitalconversion device connected to said image input device for convertingsaid analog image signal into a series of digital numbers having apredetermined number of bits, thereby forming a digital pixel image; aprogrammable image processing device disposed on a single integratedcircuit includinga master processor for controlling operation of saidimaging processing device, said master processor operating on aninstruction cycle, a plurality of parallel processors each capable ofperforming independent image operations on digital image data includingmovement of said digital image data to and from a plurality ofaddressable memory spaces, each of said parallel processors operating onsaid instruction cycle, a transfer processor connected to said imagememory for transferring data between said image memory and said imageprocessing device, said transfer processor operating on said instructioncycle, a plurality of memories forming a plurality of addressable memoryspaces, and a crossbar switch matrix connected to said master processor,each of said parallel processors, said transfer processor and each ofsaid memories, said crossbar switch matrix reconfigurable eachinstruction cycle for granting said master processor, each of saidparallel processors and said transfer processor access to said pluralityof memories; a user input device connected to said image processingdevice for input of user commands; an image information bus connected tosaid image processing device for transfer of data corresponding toimages being processed; a display connected to said image informationbus for display of image data to a user; and a print assembly connectedto said image information bus for producing documents corresponding toimage data.
 11. The imaging computer system as claimed in claim 10,wherein:said image input device includes optics and a charge coupleddevice.
 12. The imaging computer system as claimed in claim 11, furthercomprising:a controller engine connected to said charge coupled device,said programmable image processing device and said print assembly forproviding timing signals to said charge coupled device and said printassembly.
 13. An imaging computer system comprising:a first and a secondcharge coupled device disposed to detect position information of auser's hand within a predetermined space; a programmable imageprocessing device disposed on a single integrated circuit includingamaster processor for controlling operation of said imaging processingdevice, said master processor operating on an instruction cycle, aplurality of parallel processors each capable of performing independentimage operations on digital image data including movement of saiddigital image data to and from a plurality of addressable memory spaces,each of said parallel processors operating on said instruction cycle, atransfer processor connected to said image memory for transferring databetween said image memory and said image processing device, saidtransfer processor operating on said instruction cycle, a plurality ofmemories forming a plurality of addressable memory spaces, and acrossbar switch matrix connected to said master processor, each of saidparallel processors, said transfer processor and each of said memories,said crossbar switch matrix reconfigurable each instruction cycle forgranting said master processor, each of said parallel processors andsaid transfer processor access to said plurality of memories; saidprogrammable image processing device configured to receive said positioninformation of a user's hand within the predetermined space, assign ameaning to said position information and correspondingly control saidimaging computer system; a memory connected to said programmable imageprocessing device; and a flat panel display connected to saidprogrammable image processing device for display of image data to auser.
 14. The imaging computer system as claimed in claim 13, furthercomprising:a video camera connected to said programmable imageprocessing device for generating an image of objects in a predefinedspace.
 15. The imaging computer system as claimed in claim 13, furthercomprising:a printer port connected to said programmable imageprocessing device for controlling a printer.
 16. The imaging computersystem as claimed in claim 13, further comprising:a host computer portconnected to said programmable image processing device for communicationwith a host computer.
 17. An imaging computer network comprising:a hostcomputer for collecting and distributing image information; a pluralityof imaging computers, each imaging computer includinga buffer memoryconnected to said host computer for receiving image information fromsaid host computer, a data bus connected to said buffer memory, a memoryconnected to said data bus, a programmable image processing deviceconnected to said data bus and disposed on a single integrated circuitincludinga master processor for controlling operation of said imagingprocessing device, said master processor operating on an instructioncycle, a plurality of parallel processors each capable of performingindependent image operations on digital image data including movement ofsaid digital image data to and from a plurality of addressable memoryspaces, each of said parallel processors operating on said instructioncycle, a transfer processor connected to said data bus for transferringdata between said data bus and said image processing device, saidtransfer processor operating on said instruction cycle, a plurality ofmemories forming a plurality of addressable memory spaces, and acrossbar switch matrix connected to said master processor, each of saidparallel processors, said transfer processor and each of said memories,said crossbar switch matrix reconfigurable each instruction cycle forgranting said master processor, each of said parallel processors andsaid transfer processor access to said plurality of memories.
 18. Theimaging computer network as claimed in claim 17, wherein:at least one ofsaid imaging computers further includesa printer interface connected tosaid data bus, and a print assembly connected to said printer interfacefor producing documents corresponding to image information.
 19. Theimaging computer network as claimed in claim 17, wherein:at least one ofsaid imaging computers further includesa scanner for acquiring imageinformation, and a front end processor connected to said scanner andsaid data bus for processing acquired image information from saidscanner.